LONDON: A scientist advising the UK government has warned that early lifting of lockdown measures could see a resurgence of coronavirus disease cases leading to a return to restrictions, despite the country’s rapid vaccination program.
Prof. Steven Riley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), said vaccines did not mean social controls should end, adding “no vaccine is perfect.”
Riley told BBC Radio 4: “We are certainly going to be in the situation where we can allow more infection in the community, but there is a limit.
“In the short term, if we were to allow a very large wave of infection, that wave will find all the people who couldn’t have the vaccine for very good reason (and) those people who had the vaccine but unfortunately it didn’t give them the protection they need,” he added.
“I think scientists are genuinely worried. We don’t want to show that it is an excellent (but) not perfect vaccine by having another large wave in the UK,” Riley said.
“If for some reason we were to choose to just pretend it (coronavirus) wasn’t here any more, then there is the potential to go back to a wave that is a similar size to the one that we are in now.”
UK scientist warns: Vaccines not the end of virus controls
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UK scientist warns: Vaccines not the end of virus controls
- Prof. Steven Riley said vaccines did not mean social controls should end, adding “no vaccine is perfect”
- We are certainly going to be in the situation where we can allow more infection in the community, but there is a limit,” he said
Russia sees bleak prospects for expiring nuclear arms pact given ‘ruined’ ties with US
- President Vladimir Putin in 2023 suspended Russian participation in New START, blaming US support for Ukraine
- But Russia would remain within the treaty’s limits on warheads, missiles and heavy bomber planes
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also told TASS news agency that President Donald Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense project was a “deeply destabilizing” factor creating formidable new obstacles to arms control.
His comments were among Moscow’s bleakest yet about the prospects for the New START agreement, the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the two countries, which caps the number of strategic warheads that each side can deploy.
President Vladimir Putin in 2023 suspended Russian participation in New START, blaming US support for Ukraine, although he said that Russia would remain within the treaty’s limits on warheads, missiles and heavy bomber planes.
But if the treaty is not extended or replaced after it expires on February 5 next year, security experts fear it could fuel a new arms race at a time of acute international tension over the conflict in Ukraine, which both Putin and Trump have said could lead to World War Three.
The Federation of American Scientists, an authoritative source on arms control, says that if Russia decided to abandon the treaty limits, it could theoretically increase its deployed nuclear arsenal by up to 60 percent by uploading hundreds of additional warheads.
Ryabkov described Russia-US ties as “simply in ruins.”
“There are no grounds for a full-scale resumption of New START in the current circumstances. And given that the treaty ends its life cycle in about eight months, talking about the realism of such a scenario is increasingly losing its meaning,” Ryabkov told TASS.
“Of course, deeply destabilizing programs like the Golden Dome – and the US is implementing a number of them – create additional, hard-to-overcome obstacles to the constructive consideration of any potential initiatives in the field of nuclear missile arms control, when and if it comes to that.”
Trump said last month he had selected a design for the $175-billion Golden Dome project, which aims to block threats from China and Russia by creating a network of satellites, perhaps numbering in the hundreds, to detect, track and potentially intercept incoming missiles.
Analysts say the initiative could sharply escalate the militarization of space , prompting other countries to place similar systems there or to develop more advanced weapons to evade the missile shield.
Ryabkov’s comments came in the same week that Ukraine stunned Moscow by launching drone strikes on air bases deep inside Russia that house the heavy bomber planes that form part of its nuclear deterrent.
Russia has said it will retaliate as and when its military sees fit.
Bolivia justice minister accuses Morales of ‘terrorism’ over road blockades
- Supporters of the former president have began blocking roads leading to La Paz, the seat of government
- Protests have snowballed into a wider revolt over President Luis Arce’s handling of a deep economic crisis
Siles said the government had filed a complaint against Morales for “terrorism, public incitement to crime and attacks on the security of public services,” among other crimes, over the campaign of road blockades that has paralyzed central Bolivia since Monday.
Supporters of the former president – who served from 2006 to 2019 – began blocking roads leading to La Paz, the seat of government, over the electoral authorities’ refusal to allow Morales to run for a fourth term in August 17 elections.
The protests have since snowballed into a wider revolt over President Luis Arce’s handling of a deep economic crisis, marked by severe shortages of hard currency and fuel.
Many of the protesters have called on Arce, an ally-turned-foe of Morales, to resign.
A leaked audio message on Thursday appeared to capture Morales calling on his supporters in the country’s agricultural heartland to shut down two key roads leading to La Paz.
The government reported more than 40 blockades nationwide on Thursday, which the minister of economy said were causing daily losses of $100 to $150 million.
Around 30 police officers have been injured in clashes with protesters since the beginning of the week, according to Gabriela Alcon, deputy minister of communication.
Morales, 65, was barred by the Constitutional Court from seeking re-election but attempted in vain to register as a candidate last month.
He faced a similar situation in November 2019 when the government of right-wing president Jeanine Anez accused him of “sedition and terrorism.”
Morales had allegedly called on supporters to maintain blockades which caused food and fuel shortages in La Paz.
Morales is also wanted on charges of human trafficking over his alleged sexual relationship with a minor while in office.
He has firmly rejected the charges as a case of “judicial persecution.”
Polish foreign minister takes aim at Musk after Trump clash
WARSAW: Poland’s foreign minister poked fun at Elon Musk late on Thursday, returning to a social media spat from March after the Tesla and SpaceX boss spectacularly fell out with US President Donald Trump.
Warsaw’s top diplomat Radoslaw Sikorski found himself embroiled in an extraordinarily public clash with Musk and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in March after he said Ukraine may need an alternative to the Starlink satellite service.
Amid a flurry of posts on his social media platform X, Musk had told Sikorski to “Be quiet, small man.”
On Thursday simmering tensions between Musk and Trump exploded into a public feud, as the president threatened to cut off government contracts to companies run by the world’s richest man. Musk suggested Trump should be impeached.
Sikorski took aim at Musk in a post on X, saying “See, big man, politics is harder than you thought.”
There was no immediate response to the post from Musk.
Europe eyes Kosovo-Denmark deal for foreign prisoners
- The agreement provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark
- The prisoners must not be convicted of war crimes or terrorism, nor suffering from mental illness or a terminal disease
GNJILANE: By 2027, Denmark will relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro agreement that has raised concerns among NGOs and residents but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU.
The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar MPs in 2024, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark.
They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes nor suffer from mental illness or a terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovo, they will be deported to their home country.
In exchange, Denmark will pay 200 million euros ($230 million) — more than six times the annual budget of Kosovo’s Ministry of Justice.
The detainees will be imprisoned in a dedicated facility in the village of Pasjak, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of the capital, Pristina, where work on renovation of the facility is to start soon.
From the main road, the narrow path leading to the red-bricked prison divides the village in two, leaving about 1,500 residents on one side.
The school, mosque and cemetery are on the other near the prison itself, which is surrounded by high walls with barbed wire and observation posts.
The project has left residents perplexed.
“We don’t know who they will bring or if they will pose a threat to the village,” said Zeke Zeka, a 57-year-old farmer and deputy chief of the village.
“If they were good, Denmark would keep them and not transfer them out of the country,” he added.
Hanging out washing in the courtyard, Zeka’s wife, Hasime, 57, said she regrets having a prison practically on her doorstep but added: “It can’t be helped. We weren’t asked.”
Doubt has spread even inside the prison, where the guards feel discriminated against.
“We will continue to work for the same pay but under a Danish regime, which is therefore more demanding, and whose standards are among the highest in Europe,” one of them explained to AFP during a tour.
The agreement stipulates that Kosovo “must make the necessary adjustments to the prison facilities to ensure they meet the requirements of the sending state,” explained Ismail Dibrani, director of the Kosovo Correctional Service.
“Of course, the layout will be adapted to the Danish prison system,” he added, specifying that there will be “workshops where prisoners can work in printing, sewing, design, etc..”
On the Danish side, the government appointed a senior official, Mads Beyer, in April to co-direct the prison, in cooperation with local authorities.
His job, he confirmed to AFP, will be “to ensure that prisoners serve their sentences in accordance with Danish rules and under conditions similar to those applied in Danish prisons.”
The UN Committee Against Torture, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and several NGOs have expressed concern about the project.
But the initiative is being keenly watched across Europe.
French President Emmanuel Macron recently declared that prisoner relocation was “not taboo” while Sweden on Tuesday said it was looking to rent prison places in Estonia.
“Unlike the majority of European states that are facing prison overcrowding, we have sufficient capacity,” explained Dibrani.
“Our prison capacity is currently 2,500 places, while we instantly have around 1,800 prisoners.”
“After signing the agreement, we received a number of requests from European countries, for huge sums of money. But we haven’t discussed it yet,” he added.
“We already have a lot of work to do for our own country.”
Indian police arrest four people for cricket fans stampede
- Stampede during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s trophy celebration killed 11 people and injured 47
Police in India’s tech capital of Bengaluru have arrested four people, including an official of a top cricket franchise, in connection with a stampede during a trophy celebration that killed 11 people and injured 47, media reported.
Four people, three from an event management company and one official from the Royal Challengers Bengaluru cricket team, whose victory in the Indian Premier League this week led to fan frenzy, were arrested early on Friday morning, media said.
Spokespersons for the team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
On Wednesday, Bengaluru were celebrating their win the previous day over Punjab Kings in the final of the IPL’s 18th edition, the world’s richest T20 cricket league. The team had given away free passes for the celebration at a stadium in the city but said that numbers would be limited.
Thousands of people gathered outside the stadium, and fans without passes tried push through the gates, leading to a stampede.
The franchise said later the incident was “unfortunate” and pledged one million Indian rupees to each family of the 11 fans who died on Wednesday.
Stampedes occur frequently in India, mainly at religious events, but it was the first time in 45 years that fans had died in a crush at a sporting event, media said.
India’s head cricket coach Gautam Gambhir said on Thursday he did not support such roadshows and celebrations.
“Celebration is important. But more important than that is the life of any person. So, if we are not prepared or if we can’t handle the crowd in that way, then we might as well not have these roadshows,” Gambhir told reporters.
