Urgent UK Action Needed to Avoid January and February Catastrophe

Britain’s government needs to bring in tighter coronavirus lockdown rules to avert a fresh wave of deaths from a new strain of the disease, a leading epidemiologist and government advisor warned on Tuesday.

Britain reported 41,385 new COVID cases on Monday, the highest number since testing became widely available in the middle of 2020, and English hospitals say they have more COVID patients than during the first wave of the pandemic in April.

“We are entering a very dangerous new phase of the pandemic, and we’re going to need decisive early national action to prevent a catastrophe in January and February,” said Andrew Hayward, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at University College London.

More than 71,000 people in Britain have died within 28 days of a positive test for the disease.

Turkey is not Seeking Alternative to NATO

Turkey’s relations with Russia are not an alternative to its ties with NATO and the European Union, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Russia on Tuesday.

His comments came after fellow NATO member Washington sanctioned Turkey over its purchase of Russian S-400 missile defences, and the EU prepared punitive steps over Turkey’s dispute with members Greece and Cyprus over Mediterranean offshore rights.

Protestors March Against Nepali PM

Thousands of opponents of Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli marched through the streets of Kathmandu on Tuesday urging him to reverse his decision to dissolve parliament and call for early elections.

The protesters, who say his decision on Dec. 20 was unconstitutional, rallied outside his office despite coronavirus curbs on gatherings.

Oli says internal squabbling and a lack of cooperation from his party have paralysed decision-making, forcing him to seek a new popular mandate.

Police officials overseeing security said at least 10,000 people were on the streets to participate in the march, one of the most intense protests the country has witnessed since Oli dissolved parliament.

The country’s top court will in January continue hearing dozens of petitions filed against Oli’s political move and his plans to press ahead with parliamentary elections next year on April 30 and May 10, less than two years before the scheduled date.

Nazi Stash Found by Spanish Police

Spanish police found a warehouse full of Nazi memorabilia as they arrested three suspected leaders of an international arms ring that sold guns to drug traffickers along the Costa del Sol, the Civil Guard force said on Tuesday.

Following a year-long investigation into a wave of gun crimes in the region, police raided three locations, recovering 160 firearms, nearly 10,000 bullets and 1.5 kg of explosives.

The warehouse where the weapons were found was stuffed with Nazi artefacts, including portraits of Adolf Hitler, German military uniforms and medals displayed as if in a museum, police footage showed.

Officers arrested two German men, one of whom had links to far-right groups, and a British man. They have been charged with arms trafficking, drugs trafficking and falsifying official documents.

Wealthy US Hospitals are Securing “Unnecessarily” Funds from FEMA

After collecting billions of dollars in U.S. coronavirus aid, many of the nation’s wealthiest nonprofit hospitals are now tapping into disaster relief funds that critics say they don’t need.

The money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is going to some large health systems that have billions of dollars in cash reserves and investments, according to government records reviewed by Reuters.

FEMA has received nearly 2,200 aid requests from hospitals and thus far has approved about 15% of them, for a total of $894 million, the agency told Reuters. Hospitals can request more money as U.S. infections surge, and FEMA officials expect total aid awards to rise significantly.

Some health policy experts say that large and well-capitalized nonprofit systems - which typically pay no taxes - do not need the additional relief money. Among the aid applicants are some of the nation’s best-known health systems, including the Cleveland Clinic, Providence and Stanford Health Care.

Some nonprofit hospitals said federal aid hasn’t covered all of the lost revenue and higher expenses caused by the pandemic. The FEMA program, they said, recognizes their major investments in staff and equipment to handle the crisis.

Fashion Designer Pierre Cardin Dies

French designer Pierre Cardin, who upended fashion styles in the 1960s and 70s with futuristic looks, has died at the age of 98, France’s Fine Arts Academy said in a statement on Twitter.

Cardin was also known for overhauling the fashion industry by successfully licensing his brand name and making savvy business moves.

EU Condemns China for Jailing Journalist

The European Union on Tuesday criticised the jailing of a citizen-journalist in China who reported on the early outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic from Wuhan.

A Chinese court handed down a four-year jail term on Monday to Zhang Zhan, who reported at the peak of the crisis in the city where the coronavirus first emerged. Her lawyer said Zhang was jailed on the grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.

The EU called for Zhang’s immediate release, as well as for freedom for jailed human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, and several other detained and convicted human rights defenders and individuals who engaged in reporting in the public interest.

The EU criticism over the affair comes a day before EU and Chinese leaders are expected to clinch a deal to give European companies better access to the Chinese market.

Croatia Hit by Earthquake

A strong earthquake has hit Croatia, with some injuries reported as well as considerable damage to roofs and buildings south east of the capital Zagreb.

The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said an earthquake of 6.3 magnitude hit 46 kilometres (17 miles) south east of Zagreb.

Initial reports said the earthquake caused wide damage, collapsing roofs, building facades and even some entire buildings.

The same area was struck by a 5.2 quake on Monday.

The regional N1 television reported live from the town of Petrinja, which was hard-hit in the Monday quake, that a collapsed building had fallen on a car.

The footage showed firefighters trying to remove the debris from the car, which was buried underneath.

The report said a man was apparently in the car when the quake hit.

Targeted Killing of Journalists Rise in 2020

More journalists are being killed outside of war zones, and the overwhelming majority of this year’s grim total of at least 50 dead were deliberately targeted, Reporters Without Borders said.

The press freedom group said many of them were murdered while investigating organised crime, corruption and environmental degradation.

Its tally of journalists and media workers killed in connection with their work by mid-December was just slightly lower than in 2019, when the group counted 53 dead, even though many journalists reported less from the field in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The group said 68% were killed outside of war zones this year.

That confirms a trend noted by the group since 2016, when only four out of 10 deaths were in countries not at war.

Targeted killings of journalists surged in 2020, accounting for 84% of deaths, sharply up from 63% in 2019, the group said.

It again listed Mexico as the deadliest country for media workers, counting at least eight journalists killed there in connection with their work in 2020.

Nightingale Hospitals are on Standby and Ready to Receive

London’s Nightingale hospital remains on standby for use, NHS England has insisted, despite the removal of some equipment from the site.

England’s hospitals are currently seeing more Covid-19 patients than at the first-wave peak of the virus in April.

NHS England sent a letter to trusts on December 23 asking them to plan for the use of additional facilities such as the Nightingale hospitals amid rising numbers of patients with the virus.

It is understood some equipment which was initially at the ExCel centre site in London is no longer there.

Beds and ventilators have been removed, the Daily Telegraph reported.

A spokesperson for the NHS said: “The Nightingale in London remains on standby and will be available to support the capital’s hospitals if needed.

“In the meantime it is vital that Londoners do everything possible to reduce transmission and cut the number of new infections which otherwise inevitably result in more avoidable deaths.”

But concerns have been raised around the already-stretched health service’s ability to staff Nightingale facilities.