Category: december 2020

Countries across Europe are introducing a new round of coronavirus restrictions. They’re coming either just before Christmas or soon after. Italy is the latest country to announce new measures. Shops, bars and restaurants there will close, and travel between different regions will be banned. Similar precautions are being taken across the continent. Germany is seeing shuttered shops and empty streets, as the country goes into its first weekend of hard lockdown this winter. Austria will follow suit just after Christmas. Non-essential businesses will close on December 26. Austria’s coronavirus infection rate is lower than many of its neighbors, but there are fears that could change. Sweden’s infection rate, on the other hand, has been surging for two months. The Nordic country never imposed a full lockdown, relying instead on voluntary social distancing. But with case numbers going up, non-essential public facilities like pools and libraries will close, and – for the first time – the government is recommending residents wear masks on public transport. Yet the measures remain lax compared to Germany and Austria. Switzerland, too, is headed for lockdown as restaurants are set to close next week. The Swiss government has urged people to stay inside. But it has left at least one decision to local authorities: whether to open ski lifts. This year, skiers will have to add COVID-19 to the long list of alpine hazards. German health departments reported 31,300 new cases on Friday and 702 fatalities related to COVID-19. Over 25-thousand people have now died of the disease in Germany. In France the toll has passed sixty thousand. President Emmanuel Macron is asking people to remain vigilant after he tested positive for COVID-19.

US president-elect Joe Biden introduced his new climate and energy team on Saturday during a media avail in Wilmington, Del. that focused on steering the country toward greater action to curb climate change and to protect the nation’s air and water. The incoming Biden team will try to undo or block many of the current administration’s initiatives including re-joining the Paris agreement. There also will be an emphasis on looking out for the low-income, working-class and minority communities hit hardest by fossil fuel pollution and climate change. Nominated to lead the Interior Department, New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland would be the first Native American in the role, which has wielded influence over the nation’s tribes for generations. Former two-term Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm was nominated to be energy secretary. North Carolina official Michael Regan, if confirmed by the Senate, would be the first African American man to run the Environmental Protection Agency.

Anthony Fauci told children he had visited Santa Claus at the north pole and personally gave him the vaccine so he could deliver presents this year.

Deals between the COVAX alliance and manufacturers have secured two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines for lower-income countries.

This is Part III out of ‘one with a quadrillion zeros’ parts. 

New reporting from Business Insider reveals Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner helped create a Trump campaign shell company that secretly paid the president’s family members and spent $617 million in reelection cash. This news comes as Trump has been soliciting his supporters for donations under the guise the money will go toward the Official Election Defense Fund, when in reality it’s just lining Trump’s pockets. (This interview is from MSNBC’s “The Beat with Ari Melber, a news show covering politics, law and culture airing nightly at 6pm ET on MSNBC. Aired on 12/18/2020.

Hospitals across south-east England have begun cancelling non-urgent operations with some struggling to cope with twice the number of patients they had in the spring. It comes as UK government sources warned of concerns that the new variant of Covid-19 could be more infectious and harder to contain. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was hoping to avoid a third national lockdown in England but acknowledged that rates of infection had increased very much over recent weeks. New data surgests the UK’s R number — or reproduction rate of coronavirus – is on the rise again. It is now estimated to be between 1.1 and 1.2. Anything above 1 means the number of cases is growing. Sophie Raworth presents BBC News at Ten reporting by health editor Hugh Pym.

Morning Joe medical contributor Dr. Dave Campbell discusses the impact the coronavirus has had on mental health. Aired on 12/18/2020.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has declared victory in the conflict in Tigray, but a humanitarian crisis is growing. International aid agencies are sounding the alarm over the situation in northern Ethiopia. They were allowed to deliver some supplies at the start of the week, but say they need full humanitarian access to the region if they are to save lives. The fear is that millions of people in Tigray do not have enough to eat or drink and that the area is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster following the recent conflict there. Tens of thousands have fled the hostilities in Tigray. Many of them are now in Sudan and are also in dire need. We also talk with Ethiopian-American author and writer Maaza Mengiste to give us her perspective on the current situation in Ehtiopia. Her new novel ‘The Shadow King’ was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The book is about Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.

The coronavirus pandemic has lead to a rise in mental health problems among migrants stuck in camps in Greece. That’s according to a study by the International Rescue Committee, the IRC. Some 15 thousand people are currently stuck in overcrowded reception centres on Greek islands. Squalid conditions here are made worse by lockdowns imposed because of the virus. The IRC study found that additional restrictions in movement have worsened symptoms in a range of psychological disorders among migrants. Meanwhile, the number of refugees worldwide keeps growing. This year the UN counted a total of nearly 80 Million refugees globally – an increase of some ten Million. And many of those people have been living as refugees for much – if not all – of their lives.