Government health officials have warned that tens of thousands of Americans will die in the coming weeks as coronavirus continued to surge across the country, shattering more daily records.
Related: Coronavirus live news: Germany, Sweden and Russia all report record rises in daily cases
Continue reading...Reference to Islam removed from EU governments’ declaration after disagreements
The rise of violent extremism in Europe has been linked to the failure of migrants to integrate, in a hard-debated joint declaration by EU governments on the recent terror attacks.
The statement by EU home affairs ministers was described by Horst Seehofer, Germany’s interior minister, as a “great sign of solidarity” when delivered on Friday but it had been heavily watered down from a controversial initial draft.
Continue reading...Politicians struggle to explain why a region so much less affected in spring is so badly hit now
In the countries of central Europe, which during spring seemed to provide a best-practice model for keeping coronavirus at bay, case numbers have risen sharply, and governments in the region fear that their health systems are close to capacity and may struggle to cope. Central Europe is now just as badly hit as countries further west, and by some parameters is doing worse.
The Visegrad Four group of nations – Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia – were all notable for their success in keeping case numbers low earlier in the year, even as gruesome statistics of deaths and hospitalisations came out of western Europe on a daily basis.
Continue reading...The doom spiral has been interrupted. Could it be that, by the spring, things will actually be better than they are now?
After five years of wanting to move, about two years of having to move and eight months of really urgently needing to move, the kids being so large and teen now that we could all smell each other across two floors of our titchy house, we finally moved. The sheer number of small, troublesome questions this prompted – have we traumatised the rabbit? Will the dog definitely die if he runs on to the A3, and will the resulting pile-up be legally my fault? What’s at the bottom of this pan we packed, oh God no, it’s curdled milk, who moves house without washing up first? Me, that’s who – completely clouded my vision. It was days before I realised something good had happened.
The US elections unfolded at the same time, following the same pattern. Lots of facts, and counting, and more facts, and revised counting, and nebulous fretting, until finally, wait … this is actually good. Something good has happened. This would have been a really fortuitous day to buy a lottery ticket, I thought on Saturday evening; with so much improbable good fortune, the chances of me winning a million quid are probably pretty high. I didn’t follow that up because I was too busy drinking and whatnot. Then two days later, a vaccine.
Continue reading...Music’s primal power for those living with dementia has inspired thousands of YouTube views for a clip of a former dancer
We see a frail and elderly woman in a chair, her eyes downcast. She motions for the music to be turned up, a swelling melody from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, and with a little encouragement her hands begin to flutter. Then suddenly her eyes flash and she’s Odette the swan queen at the misty lakeside, arms raised. She leans forward, wrists crossed in classic swan pose; her chin lifts as if she’s commanding the stage once more, her face lost in reverie.
The woman in the film is Marta Cinta González Saldaña, a former ballet dancer who died in 2019, the year the video was shot. But the clip has gone viral since being posted recently by Spanish organisation Música Para Despertar (Music to Awaken), which promotes the value of music for those living with Alzheimer’s. Many of the details accompanying the video on its journey around the internet have been erroneous. Marta Cinta was not a member of the “New York Ballet” (there’s no such company) or the actual New York City Ballet, but seems to have run her own dance company in the city; the ballerina performing in the intercut video is not her but Ulyana Lopatkina, who is not even dancing Swan Lake but Mikhail Fokine’s The Dying Swan. Yet none of that takes away the impact of watching someone seemingly light up and have their memories unlocked by the power of melody. It’s as if you’re seeing Saldaña inhabit her true self.
Continue reading...Number of people dying from the disease also increased by 50% since 2016, according to data from the WHO and CDC
The number of measles cases worldwide surged to nearly 900,000 in 2019, the highest figure in more than two decades, underlining a significant U-turn in global progress to combat the disease.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the number of people dying from measles also increased by 50% since 2016, with an estimated 207,500 deaths in 2019 alone.
Continue reading...Israel Vázquez became the third journalist to be murdered in two weeks – and the eighth this year – while reporting on Monday
Early on Monday morning, Israel Vázquez, a crime reporter in the Mexican city of Salamanca, received a tip that a plastic bag full of human remains had been dumped at the side of a street.
He reached the scene before the police, but as he prepared to broadcast on Facebook live, gunmen opened fire from a passing car, and shot him eight times. He died of his injuries later in the day.
Continue reading...Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala worst affected with scores dead and more than 200,000 people evacuated from their homes
Central America is braced for further storms this weekend as the region reels from the devastation caused by Hurricane Eta, the Red Cross has warned.
Forecasters believe a weather front forming in the Caribbean has a 90% chance of becoming a cyclone, making it the 30th named Atlantic storm of 2020 in a record-breaking hurricane season, shattering the previous worst year of 28 storms in 2005.
Continue reading...As Poland attempts to pass a new abortion law that amounts to a near-total ban on terminations, including in cases where a baby is sure to die soon after birth, the country's biggest protests in four decades have erupted, with Polish women challenging church as well as state. Karolina Więckiewicz is a lawyer with the charity Abortion Without Borders, which advises Polish women on abortions and helps them to avail of safe, legal procedures overseas. We follow her on to the streets as women of all ages rise up to demand rights over their own bodies, and an end to social stigma around sex and abortion
Continue reading...Italy also registers 40,000 new infections; Germany records 23,542 new cases; Russia reports its worst day for new infections; Sweden’s hits daily record
Health authorities in the Australian state of NSW have released a list of three key “venues of concern” in Auckland as they check arrivals from New Zealand since 5 November.
•A-Z Collection, Auckland CBD: 10.30am-6.30pm on 8 November, 10.30am-6.30pm on 9 November, or 10.30am-6.30pm 11 November
•The Vincent Residences, Auckland Central: 12am on 7 November to 12pm 12 November
•Red Pig Restaurant, Auckland CBD: 6-8.30pm on 7 November
NSW Health is contacting 455 people who have arrived from New Zealand since 5 November following a locally acquired case of COVID 19 in Auckland. These passengers have been sent a message alerting them to a number of venues of concern in Auckland. pic.twitter.com/Gpd6avauBJ
News agency Reuters is reporting the latest case numbers from Brazil, one of the world’s worst-hit countries.
The country’s health ministry has reported 29,070 new Covid-19 cases and a further 456 deaths from the disease.
Continue reading...For EU leaders to seek solutions abroad to end prejudice against millions of their own citizens is insulting and meaningless
Terror attacks in France and Austria have put Europe’s 25 million Muslims back in the spotlight. The unwanted attention is familiar. Discussing Muslims as a security risk invariably reaches fever pitch after an Islamist-inspired terrorist act. This time the attackers came from Chechnya, Tunisia and North Macedonia. But never mind: anxiety over the Muslim “enemy within” goes deep.
Anxious debates on the place of Islam in Europe and claims that European Muslims are footsoldiers in an existential confrontation between Europe and Islam and represent an impossible-to-integrate “other” have dogged Muslims across the continent for decades.
Continue reading...Typhoon Vamco has killed at least seven people and unleashed some of the worst flooding in years in the Philippines’ capital, Manila
Continue reading...Customers ‘shocked’ by descriptions of larger items in RT-Mart, prompting apology for ‘inappropriate’ sign
A major Chinese retailer has been forced to apologise after one of its stores classified small clothing sizes as “beautiful” and large sizes as “rotten”.
The signs inside the RT-Mart superstore depicted a size chart with small to medium sizes described as “slim” and “beautiful”, with larger sizes as “rotten” and “horrible”.
Continue reading...Money frozen in accounts of people who were hoping to use it for treatment or to pay fines
Authorities in Belarus have ordered banks to seize money raised in small donations and paid out as compensation to victims of a police crackdown on protesters.
The funds were transferred to people who were beaten or fined after taking part in ongoing demonstrations against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.
Continue reading...Exhibition explores how surrealist movement influenced culture and design in 20th century
Anyone tiring of the many mundane strictures of the new normality can, in Madrid at least, escape temporarily into a world where hands serve as chairs, tables spin on bicycle wheels and horses obligingly proffer lamps from their heads.
An exhibition in the Spanish capital examines the countless ways in which the surrealist movement has influenced culture and design over the past century, from the sofa Salvador Dalí modelled on Mae West’s lips, to the music videos of Björk.
Continue reading...Election result is likely to further entrench divisions within the country, particularly resentment within minority communities
Aung San Suu Kyi’s party will return to power for another five year term after securing a widely predicted victory in what is the country’s second general election since the end of full military rule.
According to the Union Election Commission, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has won 346 of the 412 seats declared so far, a result driven by her continued status as an icon of democracy in the country – despite international outrage at her treatment of the Rohingya.
Continue reading...President turns to right-wing network Newsmax for support after Fox warned viewers Trump’s election victory claims were false
Donald Trump has unleashed a torrent of tweets denouncing Fox News, accusing the network of having forgotten “what made them successful, what got them there”.
“They forgot the Golden Goose,” Trump wrote in a tweet posted at midday on Thursday:
Continue reading...One of the first cruise ships to ply through Caribbean waters since the pandemic began ended its trip early after five passengers tested positive for Covid-19.
The SeaDream is carrying 53 passengers and 66 crew, with the majority of passengers hailing from the US, according to Sue Bryant, a cruise ship reporter who is aboard the ship.
Continue reading...Italy registers 636 daily deaths; French PM says no easing of restrictions as cases remain high; Germany seeing tentative signs of flattening curve
Greece reported 3,316 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, its highest daily tally since its first infection surfaced in February, according to health authorities data.
The latest jump in infections brings the total number of cases in the country to 66,637.
Donald Trump’s adviser Corey Lewandowski has become the latest member of the outgoing president’s staff to test positive for coronavirus.
Lewandowski recently traveled to Pennsylvania to assist Trump’s efforts to contest the state’s election results. He said today he believes he was infected in Philadelphia and is not experiencing any symptoms.
Continue reading...
Pope blesses president-elect
Joe Biden spoke with Pope Francis on Thursday, and Biden thanked him for his “blessing and congratulations,” his transition team said in a statement.
Related: Soul of the nation: how Joe Biden's faith will shape his presidency
Here’s where the day stands so far:
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