British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is defending plans to impose a nationwide lockdown beginning Thursday, warning that a failure to act could cause up to twice as many deaths this winter as during the first wave in the spring. The country is recording several hundred COVID-19 deaths and at least 20,000 new coronavirus infections every day. Government scientists say infection rates are exceeding worst-case scenarios modeled just weeks ago. Johnson offered a stark warning to British lawmakers in Parliament Monday. “To those in this House who believe we should resist further national measures, let me spell out the medical and moral disaster we face,” Johnson told members of Parliament. “If we allow our health system to be overwhelmed, exactly as the data now suggests, then that would not only be a disaster for thousands of COVID patients, because their survival rates would fall, we would also reach a point where the NHS was no longer there for everyone. The sick would be turned away because there was no room in our hospitals — that sacred principle of care for anyone who needs it, whoever they are and wherever, whenever they need it, could be broken for the first time in our lives.” Johnson said Britain’s lockdown would end as soon as the data allowed. FILE – Pedestrians walk near public health signs in London, September 11, 2020.“Let me stress that these restrictions are time-limited. After four weeks on Wednesday, the 2nd of December, they will expire, and we intend to return to a tiered system on a local and regional basis, according to the latest data and trends, and the House will have a vote to agree the way forward,” the British leader said Monday. Despite some opposition from lawmakers in his own Conservative Party, the new lockdown measures are expected to be voted through on Wednesday with the help of opposition Labour Party lawmakers. The nationwide lockdown will force all nonessential shops and services, including pubs and restaurants, to close their doors for at least four weeks with people once again encouraged to work from home. However, schools and universities will stay open in contrast with the spring lockdown. The prime minister had until now resisted calls for a second lockdown despite sharply rising infection rates through September and October. Over two-thirds of Britons support the measures, according to a YouGov poll published Monday. Many scientists say it remains to be seen whether the new measures will be enough to bring the pandemic under control. “Particularly with schools, there is some evidence that older children are drivers of infection,” said Dr. Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at the University of Reading. “So, keeping those schools open means that driving down the number of infections in the U.K. will be more difficult than it otherwise would have been. So, we’ll see what effect that has over the coming month.” FILE – Children use hoops for social distancing at L’Ecole des Petits, an independent French bilingual school, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown eases in Fulham, London, June 9, 2020.The government has extended its furlough scheme, which pays 80% of workers’ wages at firms hit by the lockdown, alongside grants for businesses forced to close and additional support for some self-employed workers. During the first lockdown, the British economy shrunk by a fifth. Many companies rely on Christmas trading to boost profits, and there are fears of further economic pain. “We’re just going to end up going through this weird cycle of closing and opening and closing and opening,” London bartender Marshall Seyler told Reuters. “And people are just going to continue to lose their jobs and rely on government support to pay their rent.” This time there is also greater political opposition. Nigel Farage, widely seen as the architect of Britain’s exit from the European Union, announced plans Monday to rebrand his Brexit Party into the Reform Party, with opposition to the lockdown its central theme. Farage is not an MP and his party does not hold any parliamentary seats, but analysts say Conservative MPs are nervous that his message could appeal to some voters. The World Health Organization said this week that Europe is once again the epicenter of the pandemic. France and Belgium have imposed nighttime curfews in addition to monthlong lockdowns as infections surge. In Spain, protesters clashed with police amid lockdown measures in several regions. Germany and Italy, along with several other European countries, have imposed tighter restrictions. The hope is that locking down now will mean an easing of the rules for Christmas. However, if infection rates remain high, governments say the lockdowns could last for several more weeks.
…
Day: November 2, 2020
Social media giant Twitter said Monday it will put warning labels on tweets from U.S. election candidates that claim victory ahead of official results. In a blog post Monday, the company said an election win must be “authoritatively called” before tweets without warning labels will be allowed by candidates or campaigns. To determine election results, Twitter said it would require an announcement from state election officials or a “public projection from at least two authoritative national news outlets that make independent election calls,” citing examples that included ABC News, The Associated Press, CNN and Fox News. Tuesday’s U.S. election has a record number of early votes, which election officials say could slow down the vote count in some states. Because of this, it is possible that a winner in the presidential race, along with some state and local races, will not be known on election night. Twitter said candidates’ tweets that include premature claims of an election victory would be subject to warning labels such as, “Official sources called this election differently,” or “Official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted.” The company said U.S.-based accounts with over 100,000 followers and a significant engagement that post premature claims will also be considered for labeling. In addition, Twitter said any tweets “meant to incite interference” with the election process or with the implementation of election results, including through violent action, will be removed.
…
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon Monday she would not rule out shutting down all or part of the country to address a recent surge in new COVID-19 cases.
At a news conference in Edinburgh, Sturgeon reminded reporters that when she laid out the nation’s five-tiered (0-4) alert system last week, she said she would not rule out a move to level four — a shutdown of all bars and restaurants and a ban on indoor socializing, among other restrictions — for all or parts of Scotland.
According to the government’s website, no area of Scotland is currently at an alert level higher that three, which still allows for hospitality businesses to be open, though on a limited basis.
Sturgeon stressed the need for everyone to follow the restrictions that apply to their area so they can drive down the spread of the virus. She said the government is very concerned about the rise in hospital and intensive care admissions around the country, and an increase in those numbers could prompt new restrictions.
Sturgeon expressed some frustration about the uncertainty regarding financial assistance Scotland would receive from Britain should the country be forced to impose tougher measures outside the period where government support was available.
A government program that has paid the wages of millions of furloughed employees during the pandemic was due to end Saturday but will be extended during the new British lockdown which is set to end on December 2.
Sturgeon urged people to continue to comply with current restrictions as the country recorded a total number of confirmed cases of 66,012.
…
More than 3.6 million Slovaks — around two thirds of the population — took part in a widely-watched nationwide coronavirus testing scheme over the weekend, Prime Minister Igor Matovic said on Monday.
The scheme to test the bulk of the country in a matter of days is being studied by other nations looking for ways to slow the virus and avoid overwhelming their health systems.
A total of 38,359 people or 1.06% of those who took part tested positive and must quarantine, Matovic told a news conference.
“I deeply believe that this solution will work in Slovakia on the condition that those who received certification that they are negative will continue to act responsibly and those who got a positive result will remain in quarantine with their families,” he added.
The premier has been pushing the voluntary program as a decisive way to halt the spread of the virus – though he met opposition from the president and others who balked at movement restrictions imposed on people who do not take part.
More than 40,000 medics, troops, administrative personnel and volunteers fanned across 5,000 testing sites over the weekend.
The scheme used antigen swab tests, which return results in 15-30 minutes but are less accurate than standard PCR tests. Young children were exempt. People who chose not to take part must now also go into a lockdown, according to the rules.
Compared with other parts of Europe, Slovakia recorded relatively few cases after the pandemic started spreading in March. But cases have soared in recent weeks and Matovic said the blanket testing program was necessary to avoid wider lockdowns.
…
A British court ruled Monday against Johnny Depp in his libel case against the owner of TheSun tabloid newspaper, which labelled him a “wife beater.”
In a ruling, Justice Andrew Nicol said Depp has “not succeeded in his action for libel.” He added that the defendants had shown what they published was “substantially true.”
Depp sued News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the newspaper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that accused him of assaulting his wife Amber Heard.
Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, Heard’s U.S. counsel, said in a statement that the verdict is “not a surprise” for anyone who followed the trial in the summer.
“Very soon, we will be presenting even more voluminous evidence in the U.S.,” she said.
Depp is also suing Heard for $50 million in Virginia over a Washington Post story about domestic violence. The trial is due to be held next year.
The Sun said the decision was a “stunning victory for press freedom” and that it had stood up and campaigned for victims of domestic abuse for more than 20 years.
“Domestic abuse victims must never be silenced and we thank the Judge for his careful consideration and thank Amber Heard for her courage in giving evidence to the court,” a spokesperson for the tabloid said.
Both Depp and Heard spent several days in the witness box during the three-week trial in July, giving irreconcilable accounts of their volatile relationship. The pair met on the set of 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary” and married in Los Angeles in 2015. They separated the following year and divorced in 2017.
Heard, 34, testified as the main witness for the defense, saying Depp turned into a violent alter ego he dubbed the “Monster” when under the influence of alcohol and drugs. She alleged 14 separate incidents between 2013 and 2016 in which he hit, slapped and shoved her, pulled her hair and threw bottles at her. The alleged assaults took place in glamorous settings including the couple’s luxury penthouse, Depp’s private island in the Bahamas and an executive jet.
Depp, 57, branded the allegations “sick” and a “hoax” and claimed Heard was the aggressor during their relationship. He claimed that Heard hit him, even severing the tip of his finger with a thrown vodka bottle during an altercation in Australia during filming of a “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie.
Depp acknowledged heavy drug use, saying he took marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and magic mushrooms, and became addicted to opioid painkillers. But he denied that drugs made him violent.
“I am certainly not a violent person, especially with women,” he said.
Heard insisted she was telling the truth and said she had spoken out reluctantly.
“What woman has ever benefited from being a victim of domestic violence?” she asked in court.
Depp’s lawyer, David Sherborne, accused Heard of wrongly donning the mantle of the #MeToo movement and called her “a wholly unreliable witness and frankly a compulsive liar.”
Both sides offered testimony from friends and former employees to back their version of events, and the judge must decide which account is more credible.
The decision is a big blow personally, and financially, to Depp.
“The reputations of both Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are tarnished irrevocably,” said Mark Stephens, a media lawyer at the law firm Howard Kennedy, ahead of the verdict.
“I think that it’s going to persist, because whoever wins in this case, the way in which this case was presented, the issues that came up, particularly around gendered presentation of the case, I think that’s going to be studied for years to come.”
…
The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has surpassed 1.2 million people, according to data collected by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. The fatalities are among the 46.5 million total cases compiled in the nearly year-long pandemic, and comes as the European continent reaches its own grim threshold of more than 10 million confirmed coronavirus cases. Europe is in the grips of a second wave of the virus, with a number of nations, including Belgium, Britain, France and Germany, imposing a new set of lockdowns in an effort to contain the surge. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the World Health Organization, announced Sunday that he is in self-quarantine after he was identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Dr. Tedros said in a tweet that he is well “and without symptoms” but will sequester himself “in line with @WHO protocols, and work from home.” I have been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for #COVID19. I am well and without symptoms but will self-quarantine over the coming days, in line with @WHO protocols, and work from home.— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 1, 2020 “It is critically important that we all comply with health guidance,” Dr. Tedros wrote. “This is how we will break chains of #COVID19 transmission, suppress the virus, and protect health systems.” It is critically important that we all comply with health guidance. This is how we will break chains of #COVID19 transmission, suppress the virus, and protect health systems.— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 1, 2020Britain’s Prince William was one of the 10 million coronavirus cases in Europe, according to British media reports Sunday. The 38-year-old prince was reportedly diagnosed in April, just weeks after his father, Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, announced he was entering self-isolation after coming down with mild symptoms of the virus. The illnesses of Prince Charles and Prince William occurred during the same month British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was diagnosed with COVID-19, which eventually led to his being hospitalized and put in intensive care for several days. One bright spot in the global pandemic is Australia, where health authorities said Saturday there were no new COVID-19 cases in the country, the first day of no new confirmed cases in five months. The good news comes as the southern state of Victoria is slowly emerging from a recent uptick in new cases in its capital Melbourne that began in June, peaking at more than 700 new cases a day and 819 of the nation’s 907 total deaths. The surge led state authorities to impose a strict lockdown of the city and its 5 million residents that was finally lifted last week.
…
The death toll from a super typhoon that struck the main Philippine island of Luzon Sunday has risen to 16. Typhoon Goni made landfall on Luzon carrying maximum sustained winds of 225 kilometers per hour, making it the strongest typhoon to hit the Pacific archipelago this year. Goni’s arrival comes a week after Typhoon Molave hit the same region, killing 22 people. Richard Gordon, the chief of the Philippine Red Cross, says up to 90% of homes across Catanduanes Island, which was in the path of Typhoon Goni on its way to Luzon were damaged or destroyed. Goni caused power outages, infrastructure damage and major floods. Video footage from local and social media showed rivers overflowing and some dikes destroyed, submerging villages and damaging farmland. Officials also say a landfall of volcanic ash destroyed hundreds of homes located near the active Mayon volcano in the province of Albay. Nearly 350,000 people were in evacuation centers, the Philippine Disaster Management Agency said Sunday, lowering the figure of nearly a million reported Saturday. Reuters news agency says President Rodrigo Duterte will make an aerial inspection of the typhoon damage on Monday. Goni weakened as it made its way past Manila on a path to the South China Sea. But forecasters are warning that another Pacific storm, dubbed Atsani, is on a path towards the Philippines.
…
Some New Yorkers are finding unique ways to get together even when they can’t be in the same space. Evgeny Maslov has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.Camera: Michael Eckels
…