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In Europe, COVID-19 restrictions has resulted in protests

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11/22/2021

In Europe, COVID-19 restrictions has resulted in protests

A resurgence of COVID-19 restrictions in a number of countries has resulted in protests, with some demonstrations turning violent and leading to dozens of arrests.

On Saturday night, the Netherlands saw protests at The Hague, with demonstrators lighting fires throughout the area, defacing property and pelting officers with rocks and fireworks, according to police. The disruption went on until around 1 a.m., and police took 19 people into custody before the night was over.

That demonstration also ended with five officers injured, according to the Associated Press. One officer suffered a knee injury as well as a concussion, and others sustained hearing damage, police said on Twitter.

Other COVID-related protests also took place across the Netherlands on Saturday, including in the cities of Amsterdam, Breda, and Katwijk. In Alkmaar and Almelo, fans broke into two soccer games, defying recent lockdown orders, the AP reported.

The night before, protests broke out in the Dutch city of Rotterdam with hundreds attending. Protestors are alleged to have thrown rocks at officers patrolling the scene in addition to setting off fireworks, according to local authorities. As events spiraled into disarray, authorities issued an emergency order and tried to clear the area with the use of a water cannon, officials said. Some in attendance are also alleged to have set fire to police cars and damaged property.

The protests have come in response to a three-week partial lockdown announced last weekend following a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Police arrested 51 people on Friday on charges that include public assault, incitement, and violation of the emergency order, and around half of those taken into custody were minors, authorities said.

Friday’s activities prompted criticism from Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus.

Protests in the Netherlands are reminiscent of what’s occurring in numerous other countries across Europe in recent days. In Austria, citizens have been protesting the government’s recent decision to impose a nation-wide lockdown beginning on Monday, as well as plans to make vaccinations compulsory in February.

Thousands joined a demonstration in Vienna on Saturday, with around 35,000 people gathering in the city’s Heroes’ Square, The Guardian reports.

Days earlier, hundreds of protestors had gathered outside the Austrian embassy in France, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, on the island of Guadeloupe, a French territory, rioters have set fires in the streets, shot at police, destroyed property, and looted places of business, prompting French officials to deploy around 50 members of their special forces to help restore order on the island, according to an Al Jazeera report.

In Belgium, police estimated that around 35,000 people gathered for a protest on Sunday near a train station in Brussels. Events turned hectic, however, with protestors throwing objects at officers and police resorting to using water cannons and tear gas on the crowd, Politico reports. Italy and Croatia have also been the site of demonstrations regarding COVID restrictions, and in Melbourne, Australia, heated protests against vaccine mandates are entering their second day.

Two of 17 members of a missionary group are freed in Haiti

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11/22/2021

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Two of 17 members of a missionary group are freed in Haiti

Two of 17 members of a missionary group who were kidnapped more than a month ago have been freed in Haiti and are safe, “in good spirits and being cared for,” their Ohio-based church organization announced Sunday.

Christian Aid Ministries issued a statement saying it could not give the names of those released, why they were freed or other information.

“While we rejoice at this release, our hearts are with the 15 people who are still being held,” the group said.

The missionaries were kidnapped by the 400 Mawozo gang on Oct. 16. There are five children in the group of 16 U.S. citizens and one Canadian, including an 8-month-old. Their Haitian driver also was abducted, according to a local human rights organization.

The leader of the 400 Mawozo gang has threatened to kill the hostages unless his demands are met. Authorities have said the gang was demanding $1 million per person, although it wasn’t immediately clear that included the children in the group.

The spokesman for Haiti’s National Police, Gary Desrosiers, confirmed to The Associated Press that two hostages were released on Sunday.

The release comes as Haiti struggles with a spike in gang-related violence and kidnappings, with the U.S. government recently urging U.S. citizens to leave Haiti amid deepening insecurity and a severe lack of fuel blamed on gangs blocking gas distribution terminals. On Friday, Canada announced it was pulling all but essential personnel from its embassy.

Wisconsin parade turned to horror: 5 people are dead and 40 injured

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11/22/2021

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Wisconsin parade turned to horror: 5 people are dead and 40 injured

A holiday parade in Waukesha, Wis., turned to horror after a driver in a red SUV tore through the crowd Sunday evening. The city stated that five people have been confirmed dead and more than 40 people were injured after the SUV collided with parade marchers.

Children were among those struck by the car, according to Waukesha Police Chief Dan Thompson. In all, 11 adults and 12 pediatric patients were transported to six hospitals in the area, Fire Chief Steven Howard said.

Children’s Wisconsin, a health care system operating two hospitals in the state, said it took in 15 patients from the incident as of 8 p.m., “with no reported fatalities at our hospital at that time.”

Authorities gave no further specifics about the people who were killed or injured, as they work to notify family members of the victims.

According to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, one of its Catholic priests, multiple parishioners and Waukesha Catholic school children were among those injured.

The 58th annual Waukesha Christmas Parade was underway when the vehicle drove through barricades and sped through the parade route at around 4:39 p.m.

Videos of the collision shared in the hours after the tragedy and brief statements issued by groups participating in the parade gave an idea of who some of the victims were.

Police Chief Thompson said the suspected vehicle has been recovered and there was a “person of interest” in custody, but did not specify if that was the driver. He said it was not known if there was any “nexus to terrorism.”

The FBI is assisting in the investigation, the agency’s Milwaukee division said.

There are no other threats and the scene is safe, the police chief said.

Videos across social media show a red SUV blowing through low-level barricades and speeding away. A law enforcement officer can be seen in the video and appears to open fire at the vehicle.

Ohio State University launches a plan to raise millions to eliminate student loan debt

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11/19/2021

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Ohio State University launches a plan to raise millions to eliminate student loan debt

Ohio State University has launched an ambitious, 10-year plan to raise $800 million to eliminate all loans from financial aid packages given to undergraduates.

The school, which graduates more than 8,000 undergrads a year, says about half of those students graduate with debt. On average, graduates leave the university owing about $27,000, an amount that is in line with national averages for students completing a bachelor’s degree.

The debt-elimination plan would cost Ohio State about $110 million a year, provided to students through scholarships, work opportunities and paid internships. Philanthropy will be the largest component of the initiative, but Johnson said the university is also working with state lawmakers to increase student aid.

The move by Ohio State follows efforts in recent years by other universities, but most have been at smaller, more selective schools, like Amherst College in Massachusetts, and among the Ivy League. Ohio State is one of the largest universities in the country with more than 40,000 undergraduates.

The plan would begin with a pilot program for 125 incoming freshmen next fall, expanding to include all undergraduates over the next decade.

Truck Driving Academy enrollment grow by almost 20% since last year

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11/19/2021

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Truck Driving Academy enrollment grow by almost 20% since last year

Business is booming at the California Truck Driving Academy amid a nationwide shortage of long-haul drivers that has led to promises of high pay and instant job offers. The Inglewood school has seen annual enrollment grow by almost 20% since last year, and has expanded to offering night classes.

The U.S. is about 80,000 drivers short due to a convergence of factors, according to Nick Vyas, executive director of the University of Southern California’s Marshall Center for Global Supply Chain Management.

Consumer spending is 15% above where it was in February 2020, just before the pandemic paralyzed the economy. Production rose nearly 5% over the past year as U.S. factories worked to keep up with an increased demand for goods, according to the Federal Reserve. Imports have narrowed the gap.

At the same time, many U.S. workers decided to quit jobs that required frequent public contact. This created shortages of workers to unload ships, transport goods and staff retail shops.

In California, the straining supply chain is illustrated at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where dozens of ships wait off the coast to be unloaded. The average wait is nearly 17 days, despite around-the-clock port operations beginning in October.

A lack of drivers at the ports has helped fuel the surge at the nearby California Truck Driving Academy, where instructors in reflective vests keep watch as students practice steering big rigs around a fenced-in paved lot.

Firefighter and wife were shot to death inside their Cobb County home

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11/19/2021

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Firefighter and wife were shot to death inside their Cobb County home

Police are investigating the double homicide after a couple was found dead inside their Cobb County home.

The home is located along Verbena Drive in the Acworth area. Investigators said the bodies were found around 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Justin Hicks, a 31-year-old Cherokee County firefighter, and his wife, 31-year-old Amber, were shot to death inside their home, police say.

Investigators say they also found the Hicks’ 2-year-old toddler unharmed in the home. The child is now with family members.

The Cherokee County Fire Chief, Tim Prather, released a statement about Justin Hicks, saying he had been with the department for over six years.

Prather said the investigation is still ongoing.

Neighbors who live in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood told Channel 2′s Michael Seiden that they had no idea anything was wrong until they saw police and crime tape.

“It’s insane. This is a very nice neighborhood and never have police in here and helicopters flying. It’s very crazy,” neighbor Riley Gasaway said.

“They were just really sweet people, so I just can’t imagine who did this to them. It’s terrible,” said neighbor Hannah Mabrey.

Mabrey says she watched with tears in her eyes as an officer rushed the uninjured child out of the house and into his grandparents’ arms.

“I run up the street, they’re freaking out and crying, and the police brings the child out holding him by his torso, runs him out, and the grandmother grabbed him, and the grandfather grabbed him, and they’re crying and freaking out saying, ‘Where’s my baby?’” she recalled.

Investigators say they believe someone broke into the Hicks’ home overnight and fired the fatal shots. They are still investigating any possible motives.

English cricketer apologized for a photo showing him in blackface

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11/19/2021

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English cricketer apologized for a photo showing him in blackface

English cricketer Alex Hales apologized on Friday after the publication of a photo showing him in blackface portraying Tupac Shakur at a party in 2009.

The apology comes amid an ongoing crisis in English cricket sparked by whistleblower Azeem Rafiq’s revelations about the racism he suffered while playing at Yorkshire.

The 32-year-old Hales, a former England batsman who plays for Nottinghamshire, said in a two-minute long Instagram post that he dressed as his favorite musician for a costume party.

“I obviously realize this is incredibly disrespectful and I want to apologize for the offense that this has no doubt caused,” he said. “It was incredibly reckless and foolish on my behalf and I want to apologize for that, apologize to the club for the embarrassment it would have caused them.”

Nottinghamshire and the England and Wales Cricket Board are investigating the incident.

“I guess my 20s was full of mistakes like that,” Hales continued, “reckless mistakes off the field that … let down family, let down teammates, let down friends, close relationships I had during my 20s. Some of those decisions I’ll regret for the rest of my life.”

Being out of the spotlight in recent years “has given me a chance to try to better myself as a human,” he added.

Nottinghamshire was already investigating Hales in relation to the naming of his dog. Rafiq alleged that Yorkshire teammate Gary Ballance used “Kevin” as a blanket derogatory term for all people of color, that it was “an open secret in the England dressing room,” and that Hales called his dog Kevin because it was black.

Hales has denied that allegation.

“With regards to the allegations about the dog, there’s an ongoing investigation at the club so I can’t go into detail with that, but I want to reiterate what I said in my statement the other day. I deplore all forms of racism and discrimination.”

Cricket stakeholders met Friday and vowed to take “wide-ranging action to tackle discrimination and promote inclusion and diversity at all levels,” they said in a statement released by the ECB.

The leaders, from the top down to recreational county cricket, said they discussed ways to stamp out discrimination and improve governance. They plan to meet again next week.

US opens up COVID boosters to all adults

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11/19/2021

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US opens up COVID boosters to all adults

U.S. regulators on Friday moved to open up COVID-19 booster shots to all adults, expanding the government’s effort to get ahead of rising coronavirus cases that experts fear could snowball into a winter surge as millions of Americans travel for the holidays.

The Food and Drug Administration’s decision stands to simplify what has been a confusing list of who’s eligible by allowing anyone 18 or older to choose either a Pfizer or Moderna booster six months after their last dose — regardless of which vaccine they had first. The move came after about a dozen states had started offering boosters to all adults.

There’s one more step before the approach becomes official: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must agree to expand Pfizer and Moderna boosters to even healthy young adults. Its scientific advisers were set to debate it later Friday.

If the CDC agrees, tens of millions more Americans could have three doses of protection before the new year. Anyone who got the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine can already get a booster.

All three COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S. offer strong protection against severe illness including hospitalization and death without boosters, but protection against infection can wane with time. Previously, the government had cleared boosters of Pfizer’s vaccine, as well as the similar Moderna vaccine, only for vulnerable groups including older Americans and people with chronic health problems.

But Pfizer last week asked the FDA to expand that decision to everyone, citing new data from a study of 10,000 people. Ultimately, the FDA decided there was enough evidence, from studies and real-world use of boosters, to back the expansion for both Pfizer and Moderna.

The move comes as new COVID-19 cases have climbed steadily over the last two weeks, especially in states where colder weather is driving people indoors. Some states didn’t wait for federal officials to act and opened boosters to all adults.

Britain recently released real-world data showing the same jump in protection once it began offering boosters to middle-aged and older adults, and Israel has credited widespread boosters for helping to beat back another wave of the virus.

More than 195 million Americans are fully vaccinated, defined as having received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. More than 30 million already have received a booster.

Before the expansion, people who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccinations were eligible for a third dose if they’re elderly or at high risk of COVID-19 because of health problems, their jobs or their living conditions. Because a single J&J shot hasn’t proven as effective as its two-dose competitors, any J&J recipient can get a booster at least two months later.

People who don’t meet the criteria have been able to get an extra shot because many vaccine sites don’t check qualifications.

The FDA previously ruled that people getting a booster can receive a different brand from the vaccine they received initially.

Some experts worry that all the attention to boosters may harm efforts to reach the 60 million Americans who are eligible for vaccinations but haven’t gotten the shots. There’s also growing concern that rich countries are offering widespread boosters when poor countries haven’t been able to vaccinate more than a small fraction of their populations.

President Biden will temporarily transfer power to Vice President Harris

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11/19/2021

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President Biden will temporarily transfer power to Vice President Harris on Friday as he undergoes a routine colonoscopy. She’ll be the first woman and first Asian American to hold presidential authority, if only briefly.

Biden is being placed under anesthesia while having the procedure done at Walter Reed Medical Center as part of his annual physical, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

“As was the case when President George W. Bush had the same procedure in 2002 and 2007, and following the process set out in the Constitution, President Biden will transfer power to the Vice President for the brief period of time when he is under anesthesia,” Psaki said in a statement.

Biden is using Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to transfer power, according to the White House. It states that the president must provide a written declaration to the president pro tempore of the Senate and speaker of the House that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, “and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.”

Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, had already reached a higher point in U.S. leadership than any woman or Asian American ever before her, and she is the first Black American to serve as vice president. Her rise has been hailed as an example of the future of the country that is becoming more diverse.

Austria will go into a national lockdown to contain a fourth wave of COVID-19

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11/19/2021

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Austria will go into a national lockdown to contain a fourth wave of COVID-19

Austria will go into a national lockdown to contain a fourth wave of coronavirus cases, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced Friday, as new COVID-19 infections hit a record high amid a pandemic surge across Europe.

The lockdown will start Monday and initially will last for 10 days, Schallenberg said.

And starting Feb. 1, the country will also make vaccinations mandatory.

Most stores will close, and cultural events will be canceled next week. People will be able to leave their homes only for certain specific reasons, including buying groceries, going to the doctor or exercising.

Wolfgang Mueckstein, the country’s health minister, said that kindergartens and schools would remain open for those who needed to go there but all parents were asked to keep their children at home if possible.

“We do not want a fifth wave,” Schallenberg said, according to ORF. “Nor do we want a sixth or seventh wave.”

The full lockdown is the latest effort to control rapidly rising case numbers. It’s the fourth nationwide lockdown since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. On Friday, the country reported 15,809 new infections, an all-time high.

Earlier this month, Austria introduced rules that barred unvaccinated people from restaurants, hotels and large events.

And starting Monday, the government is imposing a national lockdown only for the unvaccinated.

Government officials had long promised that vaccinated people would no longer face lockdown restrictions: Over the summer, then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz declared the pandemic “over” for those who had received the vaccine. But as virus cases continued to skyrocket, the government said it had no choice but to extend it to everyone.

For the past seven days, the country has reported more than 10,000 new infection cases daily. Hospitals have been overwhelmed with many new COVID-19 patients, and deaths have been rising again, too. So far, 11,951 people have died of the virus in Austria.

The situation is especially dire in the regions of Salzburg and Upper Austria, which have been particularly hard hit by the rising case numbers. In Salzburg, for example, the seven-day rate of new infections is nearly twice the national average.

Hospitals in both states have warned in recent days that their ICUs were reaching capacity, and hospitals in Salzburg had begun discussing potential triage procedures to take only the worst cases.

Austria, a country of 8.9 million, has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Western Europe — only 65.7% of the population are fully vaccinated.