New Omicron coronavirus variant is 'of concern', says WHO - Financial Times

The heavily mutated coronavirus strain linked to a sharp rise in cases in South Africa was designated a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization, as more countries moved to tighten curbs on travel from the affected region.

The strain would be given the name Omicron, the WHO said after an emergency meeting on Friday, when its experts examined data from South Africa that appeared to show exponential growth in cases of the B.1.1.529 Sars-Cov-2 variant.

“Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs,” the WHO said.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, told the Financial Times there was no estimate of total cases yet but that they were “increasing . . . overall” across South Africa. She said she was “concerned” because Omicron was “quite divergent” compared with other variants.

Earlier a host of countries including the UK and Israel, as well as EU member states, imposed travel restrictions on a group of southern African countries following mounting concern over the new variant.

“Early indications show this variant may be more transmissible than the Delta variant, and current vaccines may be less effective against it,” Sajid Javid, UK health secretary, told the House of Commons.

Senior US officials said on Friday that the country will restrict travel from South Africa and several other African countries including Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi starting from Monday.

The ban, which was recommended by Dr Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden’s chief medical officer, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will not apply to US citizens or permanent residents.

Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, warned that the variant “could spread around the world within a few months”, as the first case was confirmed in Europe. She urged Europeans to get vaccinated, including having third booster shots.

Belgium’s health minister, Frank Vandenbroucke, confirmed the first EU case in samples taken from a traveller from Egypt. A confirmed case, in a returnee from Malawi, and two suspected cases were also detected in Israel, which also moved quickly to shut down almost all travel to and from most of Africa.

Naftali Bennett, Israel’s prime minister, warned that the country was on the “threshold of a national emergency” as it dispatched soldiers to take travellers recently returned from the affected countries into quarantine.

Hong Kong said it had recorded two cases of the variant following genome sequencing analysis, including in a traveller who arrived from South Africa.

The countries affected by the UK travel restrictions are South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini.

South Africa on Friday accused the UK of rushing to ban travel before the variant had been properly assessed.

“Whilst South Africa respects the right of all countries to take the necessary precautionary measures to protect their citizens, the UK’s decision to temporarily ban South Africans from entering the UK seems to have been rushed,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The variant has a highly unusual 50 mutations, including 32 in the spike receptor, suggesting it could evade the immune protection provided by vaccines and spread faster than Delta, though no definitive data are yet available.

Van Kerkhove said that in areas where tests suggested Omicron was present “there is an increase in cases. I can’t say if we see increased transmissibility for sure”.

“We don’t want people to panic. This is why researchers are doing this work,” she said. “We have seen a growth advantage . . we need to compare it against other variants.”

It would take about two to three weeks to understand how the vaccines affected the Omicron variant, she said.

Additional reporting by Mehul Srivastava in Tel Aviv, Andy Bounds in Brussels, Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe in London and Aime Williams in Washington

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2021-11-26 19:19:40Z
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'She wanted to be with her husband': Channel migrant victim named as Baran Nuri Muhamadamin - The Times

A woman from Iraqi Kurdistan who was travelling to Britain to be with her husband was among those who died in the Channel tragedy.

She was identified by her family last night as Baran Nuri Muhamadamin, 24, from the town of Souran in the far northeast of Iraqi Kurdistan, where the territory meets the Turkish and Iranian borders.

The woman’s uncle, Kurmanj Ezzat, told The Times that the death had been confirmed by a friend of her husband, who was also living in the UK and had arranged for his own wife to travel with her.

Vigil held for migrants who died in Channel crossing attempt

“He went to France and met them and told them how to cross the water,” he said. “He then went to wait for them in the UK. But after

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2021-11-26 19:25:00Z
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Latest news updates: Belgium confirms first European case of new Covid variant - Financial Times

Ukraine’s president has said he has received intelligence about a Russian-backed plan to overthrow his administration next week.

“We have received information that there will be a coup d’état in our country,” Volodymyr Zelensky said at a news briefing on Friday. He specified December 1 or 2 as potential dates.

Zelensky made the comments in response to questions from journalists about whether he feared Russia could be plotting a deeper invasion of the country, following its 2014 annexation of the Crimea region and fomenting of a proxy separatist war in the far eastern Donbas province.

Zelensky also linked the alleged plot to attempts by “unnamed conspirators” to exploit the media clout of Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. The president stopped short of accusing him of direct involvement, but he claimed recordings exist that may implicate the oligarch.

“This is not only intelligence information, but also sound information, where representatives from Ukraine, so to speak, discuss the participation of Rinat Akhmetov in the coup d’état in Ukraine with representatives of Russia,” he said.

“I think he [Akhmetov] may not know about it,” Zelensky added. “I invite Rinat Akhmetov to [my office] to listen to the information that can be shared.”

There was no immediate comment from Akhmetov, a billionaire steel and energy tycoon whose television channels have in recent weeks switched from friendly coverage to harsh criticism of the president.

The Kremlin denied any involvement in the alleged coup plot. Dmitry Peskov, president Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told reporters Russia had “no plans to participate” and “never does things like this,” according to Interfax.

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2021-11-26 18:43:02Z
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COVID-19: EU and US agree to suspend travel from southern African countries over new variant - Sky News

The EU and US have agreed to suspend travel from a number of countries in southern Africa over a new COVID variant.

The EU restrictions will apply to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, European Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer said.

The US has banned travel from South Africa and seven other African nations.

Image: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said flights from countries where the new variant is should be suspended

It comes after the first European case of the B.1.1.529 variant first detected in South Africa was identified in Belgium.

EU governments have also been asked to discourage travel to those seven countries, an official said.

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No decision has yet been made on restrictions for other countries where cases of the new variant have been detected, including Hong Kong, Israel and Belgium, an EU member state.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, earlier said air travel from Europe should be suspended to all countries where the new COVID variant has been detected.

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She also said vaccine producers are obliged under their contracts to adapt their jabs as soon as a new variant emerges.

"It is now important that all of us in Europe act very swiftly, decisively and united," Ms von der Leyen said.

"All air travel to these countries should be suspended until we have a clearer understanding about the danger posed by this new variant."

The commission president said those arriving from regions where the variant has been detected should be party to "strict quarantine rules".

She said the EU was "taking it very seriously" and warned the variant could spread "worldwide in months".

It "could lead to the emergence and spread of even more concerning variants"," she added.

Marc Van Ranst, who works with the Rega Institute in Belgium, said a sample confirmed as the new variant was from a traveller who returned to Belgium from Egypt on 11 November and they started to show symptoms on 22 November.

Since midday on Friday, flights from six southern African nations - South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe - have been suspended.

From 4pm on Sunday, new arrivals of UK and Irish residents into the UK from those countries will be required to quarantine in hotels after they were placed on the red list on Thursday night.

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Non UK and Ireland residents will not be allowed in from those countries.

UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said experience has shown "we must move quickly and at the earliest possible moment".

He said there are concerns the variant may be more transmissible, make vaccines less effective and may affect one of the UK's COVID treatments, Ronapreve.

Mr Javid told the Commons it was "highly likely" the variant had already spread from southern Africa to other countries.

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2021-11-26 18:45:00Z
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Latest news updates: Belgium confirms first European case of new Covid variant - Financial Times

Ukraine’s president has said he has received intelligence about a Russian-backed plan to overthrow his administration next week.

“We have received information that there will be a coup d’état in our country,” Volodymyr Zelensky said at a news briefing on Friday. He specified December 1 or 2 as potential dates.

Zelensky made the comments in response to questions from journalists about whether he feared Russia could be plotting a deeper invasion of the country, following its 2014 annexation of the Crimea region and fomenting of a proxy separatist war in the far eastern Donbas province.

Zelensky also linked the alleged plot to attempts by “unnamed conspirators” to exploit the media clout of Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. The president stopped short of accusing him of direct involvement, but he claimed recordings exist that may implicate the oligarch.

“This is not only intelligence information, but also sound information, where representatives from Ukraine, so to speak, discuss the participation of Rinat Akhmetov in the coup d’état in Ukraine with representatives of Russia,” he said.

“I think he [Akhmetov] may not know about it,” Zelensky added. “I invite Rinat Akhmetov to [my office] to listen to the information that can be shared.”

There was no immediate comment from Akhmetov, a billionaire steel and energy tycoon whose television channels have in recent weeks switched from friendly coverage to harsh criticism of the president.

The Kremlin denied any involvement in the alleged coup plot. Dmitry Peskov, president Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told reporters Russia had “no plans to participate” and “never does things like this,” according to Interfax.

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2021-11-26 17:36:38Z
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Death toll soars to 52 in Russian coal mine accident - reports - BBC News

AFP

At least 52 people are reported to have died in Russia's worst mining disaster in a decade.

The incident started when coal dust in a ventilation shaft caught fire on Thursday, filling the Siberian mine with smoke and killing 11.

By nightfall, a failed operation to reach dozens of missing miners had turned to tragedy after several rescuers reportedly suffocated.

An emergency services source told one news agency "no one is left alive".

The majority of the 285 people in the the Listvyazhnaya mine, in the Kemerovo region some 3,500km (2,175 miles) east of Moscow, escaped in the immediate aftermath of the incident, at around 08:35 local time (01:35 GMT) on Thursday.

Officials said 49 had been taken to hospital with injuries. Some of the injured have smoke poisoning, and four are said to be in a critical condition.

Dozens of miners were unable to escape after the initial incident, but rescue operations had to be suspended after dangerously high levels of methane were detected in the mine, prompting fears of possible explosions.

One of the rescue teams then failed to emerge from the mine. The bodies of three rescuers were later found, bringing the official death toll to 14.

Then late on Thursday several sources told Russian media agencies that no further survivors were expected to be found and the death toll had risen to more than 50, including six rescuers in total.

Three people, including the mine director, have been arrested over alleged safety failings, Reuters news agency reports.

This is not the first accident at the mine, according to local media, with a methane gas explosion killing 13 in 2004. More widely, accidents in Russian mines are not uncommon.

In 2016, authorities assessed the safety of the country's 58 coal mines and declared 34% of them potentially unsafe. The list did not include the Listvyazhnaya mine at the time, Russian reports say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hoped "(they) will be able to save as many people as possible", describing the loss of life as "a great tragedy".

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2021-11-25 22:22:30Z
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Spain passes biggest budget in its history - Financial Times

Spain’s chamber of deputies has approved the biggest budget in the country’s history after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez won the support of a Catalan pro-independence party in return for a deal setting a quota for regional languages on digital platforms such as Netflix.

The budget, which includes €27bn in EU recovery funds, was backed by an ample majority of 188 votes in the chamber on Thursday and now heads to the country’s Senate. It consolidates Sánchez’s hold on power at the same time as highlighting Spain’s fragmented politics.

The agreement between the minority coalition government and the Catalan Republican Left, which also contained a promise not to renovate a police headquarters in Barcelona, was only part of a patchwork of budget deals with smaller parties.

Other commitments included provisions for children’s television in the Basque language, help for victims of asbestos, incentives for employers offering a shorter working week and greater regulation of artificial intelligence.

Máriam Martínez-Bascuñán, a political scientist at the Autonomous University of Madrid, said the budget had become a “bazaar”, where “everything is up for auction, rather than a negotiation based on the economic crisis caused by Covid or how to manage the [EU] funds”.

But she added that it was a success for Sánchez, “given the fragmentation in parliament” where the coalition commands only 155 of 350 seats.

She said that even if the government lacked the votes for a budget in the future, it could extend the 2022 budget for another year and therefore reach the end of its mandate in late 2023.

The Catalan Left, whose 13 deputies provide crucial support for the government despite the party’s pro-independence stance, hailed the deal to make companies such as Netflix offer at least 6 per cent of their programming in the Catalan, Basque or Galician languages.

An EU directive already obliges such platforms to provide a “30 per cent share of European content in their catalogues”.

Gabriel Rufián, a leading Catalan Left MP, also praised the government’s commitment not to renovate a police headquarters in central Barcelona, which he said should become a museum commemorating its role as a “centre of torture” during the fascist rule of Francisco Franco who died in 1975.

The budget was also backed by EH Bildu, a far-left Basque secessionist party led by Arnaldo Otegi, a former member of the disbanded terrorist group Eta.

Pablo Casado, leader of the main opposition People’s party, said the deal with Bildu would “freeze the blood” of Eta victims and showed that Spain’s ruling Socialists had “lost their democratic soul”.

“With the exception of the right, which always says no to everything . . . the rest of the parties in the chamber have made an effort to further understanding,” said María Jesús Montero, Spain’s budget minister.

The use of EU funds in next year’s budget is at the heart of the Socialist-led government’s economic and political strategy after a year in which its use of the resources has fallen below expectations, with Spain lagging behind the rest of the bloc in recovering from the pandemic.

According to a government budget outline, €3.2bn of the EU funds will go to industrial policy next year, €2.8bn to energy efficiency for buildings, €2.2bn to green transport systems and €2.1bn in aid for small and medium enterprises.

The government said it would be carrying out more than €40bn in investments overall — the biggest in Spanish history — out of a total central government budget of €196bn. When social security and transfers to regional authorities are included, government spending rises to €459bn.

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2021-11-25 16:07:02Z
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