PM: India coronavirus variant must be 'handled carefully'
By Jim Reed
BBC News
The Prime Minister has said the government needs to carefully handle outbreaks of the India variant of coronavirus in the UK.
It comes as Public Health England (PHE) said one version of it had been elevated to a "variant of concern".
B.1.617.2 appears to be spreading more quickly than two other identified subtypes of the Indian variant.
Scientists believe it is at least as transmissible as the variant first detected in Kent last year.
Revealed: 46m displaced people excluded from Covid jab programmes
WHO review finds many national vaccination plans exclude asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and IDPs
Tens of millions of asylum seekers, migrants, refugees and internally displaced people around the world have been excluded from national Covid-19 vaccination programmes, according to World Health Organization research seen by the Guardian.
The gaps mean that a scattered group numbering at least 46 million people, about the size of the population of Spain, may struggle to get vaccinated even if a global shortage of doses eases.
Among the excluded are 5.6 million people internally displaced by six decades of civil war in Colombia, hundreds of thousands of refugees in Kenya and Syria and nearly 5 million migrants in Ukraine.
Spaniards hold their breath as sweeping virus measures end
Spain will relax nationwide pandemic measures this weekend, including travel restrictions, but some regional chiefs are complaining that the six-month-long national state of emergency will be replaced by a patchwork of conflicting approaches
Spain will relax nationwide pandemic measures this weekend, including travel restrictions, but some regional chiefs are complaining that the six-month-long national state of emergency will be replaced by a patchwork of conflicting approaches.
Now that the country's contagion rate has stabilized while vaccine rollout continues to speed up, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has refused to extend the sweeping order that gave legal coverage to curfews, social gathering curbs and travel bans across the country. The order expires at midnight on Saturday.
His Cabinet is instead handing over full control of the battle against infection spread to the country’s 19 regions and autonomous cities, telling them they can go to the country’s Supreme Court if lower-level judges rule against their attempts to curtail basic freedoms.
Iran's Khamenei says Israel 'not a country, but a terrorist base'
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called Israel "not a country, but a terrorist base" during a speech on Al-Quds Day, an annual show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Tensions have been running high between the two arch-foes following a series of maritime attacks, an explosion at an Iranian nuclear facility and the assassination of a top nuclear scientist that Tehran blamed on Israel.
The Islamic republic does not recognise the Jewish state, and supporting the Palestinian cause, as well as armed groups such as Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, has been a pillar of Iran's foreign policy since its 1979 revolution.
Palestinians criticise social media censorship over Sheikh Jarrah
Social media users sharing content from Sheikh Jarrah complain their accounts have been censored, limited or shut down.
Palestinians have slammed social media companies for shutting down their personal accounts and censoring content about attacks on residents and activists by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
Over the past week, residents of Sheikh Jarrah, as well as Palestinian and international solidarity activists, have attended nightly vigils to support the Palestinian families under threat of forced displacement.
Israeli border police and forces have attacked the sit-ins using skunk water, tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and shock grenades. Dozens of Palestinians have been arrested.
Several families sue Johnson County school districts over ‘the trauma’ of COVID masks
The families of 16 children in Johnson County are suing the Blue Valley and Olathe districts, arguing that their students should be allowed to attend school during the pandemic without wearing masks.
Attorney Linus Baker said the parents he is representing challenged their districts’ mask requirements under Senate Bill 40, which empowers parents to quickly fight such COVID-19 restrictions. But the Olathe and Blue Valley school boards have so far upheld their mask mandates.
The lawsuit, which began in Johnson County district court, was moved to federal court this week.
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