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Jumat, 10 Desember 2021

Ghislaine Maxwell trial: Fourth accuser Annie Farmer tells court British socialite told her to undress and massaged her breasts when she was 16 - Sky News

Ghislaine Maxwell's fourth accuser has recalled the moment she was left "frozen" after the British socialite allegedly told her to undress and massaged her breasts.

Warning: This report contains graphic descriptions of alleged sexual abuse of a child.

Annie Farmer, who is the only one of four accusers to give evidence under her full name, has testified that Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein forced themselves on her when she was 16.

Ms Farmer told a federal court about a 1996 visit to the disgraced financier's New Mexico ranch where Maxwell rubbed her breasts and Epstein climbed into bed with her, and another incident in New York where he rubbed her shoe in a cinema.

Maxwell, a former girlfriend of Epstein, is on trial in New York facing eight charges, including six counts of enticing minors and sex trafficking, all of which she denies.

"Caressing" her hand and "rubbing" her shoe

Ms Farmer, now 42, told the court that before even meeting Epstein, he bought her a plane ticket to visit her sister Maria, who was one of his employees at the time, in New York in 1995.

She recalled meeting him on the trip and sitting next to him in a cinema, where he reached for her hand and started "caressing" it before "rubbing" the bottom of her shoe, foot, and leg.

"I felt sick to my stomach," she said.

The trip to New Mexico, meeting Maxwell and Epstein wanting to 'cuddle'

Ms Farmer, who now works as a therapist, told the court that Epstein paid for a flight for her to go to his New Mexico ranch in 1996.

She said she was "eager not to go" but had been told Maxwell would be there, which made her feel "more comfortable".

She recalled feeling "special", being taken shopping where she was bought a pair of cowboy boots, and going to the cinema.

Asked if there were any other things she remembered from the trip, Ms Farmer said: "The other memory I have is being in bed in the morning and suddenly Epstein opened my door in this playful way and said he wanted to cuddle, and climbed into bed with me and reached his arms around me and pressed his body into me."

She said she made an excuse to go to the bathroom, adding: "I wanted to be in there long enough that hopefully, this whole situation would be over."

'She told me to get undressed'

While at the ranch, Ms Farmer said "it was decided that I would give Epstein a foot massage".

"Maxwell wanted to show me how to rub his foot because that was something she thought I should learn how to do," she said.

"I felt very uncomfortable - I didn't want to be touching his foot. I wanted to stop and I was hoping it would be over quickly."

Ms Farmer recalled how, after a conversation about massages, Maxwell, 59, allegedly said she "would be happy" to give her one before telling her to "get undressed".

"She started rubbing my body and rubbing my back and my legs and she's making small talk, and at some point during the massage she had me roll over so I was lying on my back," she said.

"She pulled my sheet down and exposed my chest and rubbed my chest and my upper breasts."

Ms Farmer said she felt "frozen" and "surprised", adding: "I wanted so badly to get off the table and have this massage be done."

The prosecution has now rested its case and the trial will continue next week.

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2021-12-10 21:18:19Z
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South Africa records fewer severe Covid cases in Omicron wave - Financial Times

South Africa has recorded fewer severe cases in the Omicron wave of coronavirus infections sweeping the country’s economic hub compared to earlier in the pandemic, according to the latest data, although the health minister said it remained early days for assessing the variant’s severity.

Just under a third of Covid patients in hospital in Tshwane, the centre of the country’s Omicron outbreak, needed specialist care or spent time in an intensive care unit in the past 25 days, compared with two-thirds in two previous waves this year, South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Friday.

Four per cent of patients died, compared with a fifth in the other waves of infection, according to the data.

South Africa has a large number of prior infections from the past waves, and relatively high rates of older South Africans have been jabbed in recent months, even though only just over a third of all adults are double vaccinated.

South African scientists believe that both have been factors in limiting Omicron’s impact so far. Although initial studies suggest Omicron reduces antibody protection from vaccination or prior infection, experts are optimistic that immune defences against severe illness will be maintained.

But they have also cautioned that it will still take time to gauge the full impact of Omicron on hospitalisations because it has spread much faster than the other two variant-driven waves.

Chart showing the share of Covid patients requiring acute or intensive care

South Africa’s seven-day average of new daily cases has risen about forty-fold since the middle of November, to about 13,000 a day.

“It must be noted that severity data has several limitations at the early phase of a wave, where the numbers are small”, and because many Covid-19 patients were only found with the virus after being admitted for something else, health minister Joe Phaahla said in a briefing on Friday.

“It’s early days, but there are promising signs that largely patients, even those who are in hospital, are mild and many of them are incidental,” he added.

In recent weeks the over-60s have risen to more than 16 per cent of total admissions, from under 14 per cent, while admissions of children under five have fallen from 14 per cent to 7 per cent, according to data released on Friday.

Chart showing that Gauteng’s Omicron wave has lower rates of hospitalisation and death than past waves

Dr Harsha Somaroo, president of the Public Health Association of South Africa, said the emerging hospital data from the country was “reassuring”.

“The early findings suggest that [Omicron] might be milder,” said Somaroo. “In Gauteng, there is a higher level of existing immunity because we had a very intense third wave. That, coupled with immunity from vaccination, could account for some of that positive picture.”

But Somaroo stressed that “we can’t be complacent” despite reports from hospital wards indicating that length of stays are shorter, ICU admissions are less common and fewer patients are on supplementary oxygen.

“Those who have had a prior infection or vaccination are not likely to have severe disease,” said Dr Fareed Abdullah, director of Aids and TB research at the South African Medical Research Council.

But for the unvaccinated without prior infection, “the health service needs to prepare for another deluge of sick patients some of whom will be Sars-Cov-2 incidental, some of whom will have moderate disease and some of whom will have severe disease”, he said.

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2021-12-10 15:58:54Z
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Mexico truck crash: At least 54 people killed as trailer overturns - BBC News

At least 54 people have been killed and scores more injured after the truck they were being transported in crashed in southern Mexico, authorities say.

More than 150 people, said to be migrants from Central America, were crammed into the truck's trailer when it rolled in the state of Chiapas.

One resident heard a man implore his badly hurt companion: "Remember what you promised your mother! Hold on."

Pictures show victims strewn across the road next to the overturned truck.

Sabina Lopez, who lives nearby and ran to the scene after the crash, told the AFP news agency that she saw dozens of people screaming in pain, some trapped in the wreckage and others unconscious.

"It was horrible to hear the wailing. I just thought about helping," Ms Lopez, 18, told AFP.

She said the impact of the crash had broken the container in half and ripped off its roof.

Isaias Diaz arrived 15 minutes after the crash and helped paramedics with those people showing signs of life.

"I saw five, six children who were clearly injured. People with broken legs, ribs, [injured] heads, cuts on their necks," he told AFP.

"The crying, the pain, the despair. It was a terrible scene," he added.

Residents offered crash survivors water and mobile phones to contact relatives. They also said the driver and a person with him appeared injured, but then fled.

Mexico country profile

It is one of the worst accidents of its kind in Mexico. Forty-nine people were confirmed dead at the scene and five more died in hospital, Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandón said.

Some 105 people - 83 men and 22 women - were also injured in the crash, he said.

Emergency officials said the victims included men, women and children. Most of the people on board were from Guatemala, but there were others from Honduras, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.

The truck was reportedly speeding when it flipped on a sharp bend and hit a pedestrian bridge on a main road leading to the Chiapas state capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, at about 15:30 local time on Thursday.

Chiapas, which neighbours Guatemala, is a major transit point for undocumented migrants.

Satellite image showing the site where the truck crashed

Hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America try to cross through Mexico each year in a bid to reach the US.

Many of them pay smugglers, who illegally transport them in crowded and dangerous trucks on the long journey.

Human rights groups recently criticised the Biden administration for reinstating a Trump-era border policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while claims are processed. The policy has meant that thousands of migrants have been forced to stay in dangerous towns.

The US-Mexico border is the deadliest single crossing in the world according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). This year alone, at least 650 people have died trying to cross the border - more than in any other year since IOM's records began.

There are also many deaths on the perilous journey towards the border, however these are harder to accurately document, the IOM said in a statement.

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador described the crash as "very painful" and wrote on Twitter that he "deeply regrets the tragedy".

In a news conference early on Friday, Mr López Obrador said the incident would be investigated and that it served to raise awareness of the need to address the causes of migration through Mexico.

Analysis box by Will Grant, Mexico and Central America correspondent

Last month, a migrant caravan heading through Chiapas found that the local authorities had clamped down so hard on people providing lifts to migrants, they effectively had to undertake the entire journey on foot.

That meant carrying their children in their arms in the blistering heat and torrential downpours of southern Mexico's rural states.

It's a tactic employed by the government to try to break the migrants' will, to see if any will give up and turn back or accept asylum conditions in Mexico.

Throughout it all, trucks have continued to transport thousands of migrants right under the noses - or with the complicity - of the state authorities.

Their trailers filled with scores of families standing in cramped and unsafe conditions for hours, it's a wonder such incidents aren't more frequent.

Often the biggest danger to the migrants is from suffocation as the people-smugglers fail to provide sufficient ventilation or hydration for the trip.

Yet most of those in this horrific crash came from Central America and will have been escaping economic ruin, the effects of severe weather from climate change on their livelihoods or gang violence. Or some combination of all of these factors.

With that in mind, many thousands more will continue to consider the dangers of the road to be a risk worth taking to flee the unbearable conditions at home.

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2021-12-10 15:36:48Z
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COVID-19: Omicron cases surge by up to 400% in South Africa - but vaccine effectiveness 'encouraging' - Sky News

Omicron coronavirus cases have surged by as much as 400% in some parts of South Africa - although the country's health ministry has said there is mounting evidence the variant causes milder infection.

South Africa reported more than 22,000 new infections on Thursday, a record during the fourth wave but still below the more than 26,000 daily cases seen during the peak of the Delta variant.

Health Minister Joe Phaahla said Gauteng Province had seen a "very significant" increase in COVID-19 cases of "more than 400%" in the week of 4 December 2021 compared to the previous seven days - with hospital admissions up by 200%.

COVID news live: Omicron is 'ultimate lose-lose situation'

He added the Omicron strain had fuelled the surge and said: "While there is an increasing rate of hospitalisations, it may be due to overall big numbers of infections.

"It looks like it is purely because of the numbers rather than as a result of any severity of the variant itself."

Of those admitted to hospital, 70% were unvaccinated - however, it is worth noting South Africa has a relatively low rate of vaccination, with just over 25% of the population fully jabbed.

By comparison in the UK, 81% of adults have had both doses of a vaccine.

Glenda Gray, president of the South African Medical Research Council, said: "We are seeing this vaccine is maintaining effectiveness.

"It may be slightly reduced, but we are seeing effectiveness being maintained for hospital admissions and that is very encouraging."

Young people in South Africa aged 18 to 35 have the lowest rate of vaccination in the country - with less than 30% having had jabs.

"The young adults are not coming up in good numbers and we want to urge them to not listen to what they read on social media, all the anti-vax stories," said Mr Phaahla.

He said figures showed that "those who are vaccinated are much better protected".

'It's like a bomb' - New COVID strain sweeps through South Africa township but majority of hospital patients don't need extra oxygen

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South Africa will offer booster doses of the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to people six months after they receive their second dose, with the first people becoming eligible next month.

Although early information does appear to suggest the Omicron variant results in less severe disease, it also seems to be far more transmissible than the Delta strain.

Mr Phaahla said the R rate in South Africa now stands at 2.5: "Which is higher than it was at any point in the pandemic."

The R number indicates the average number of people each COVID-positive person goes on to infect.

An R number of 2.5 means every 10 infected people will, on average, pass the virus on 25 others.

The new variant was first detected by researchers in Southern Africa at the end of November.

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2021-12-10 11:25:13Z
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