Six In The Morning Sunday 19 December 2021

 

Covid-19: Sajid Javid does not rule out more restrictions

By Hamish Mackay
BBC News

The health secretary has refused to rule out further Covid restrictions for England, as the Omicron variant spreads around the country.

A further 12,133 Omicron cases have been confirmed in the UK, although the true number is likely to be far higher.

Asked about possible new measures to slow the spread, Sajid Javid said there were "no guarantees in this pandemic".

The government and devolved leaders are to discuss the situation in a Cobra meeting at 17:00 GMT.

When it was suggested to him he was not ruling out a circuit-breaker - a short, sharp lockdown - or new restrictions before Christmas, Mr Javid told the BBC's Andrew Marr: "There are no guarantees in this pandemic, I don't think.

Appeal for votes in Hong Kong ‘patriots’ election after low early turnout

Ballot is first since Beijing cut number of directly elected seats and moved to control who can run

Vincent Ni, Rhoda Kwan and agencies

Sun 19 Dec 2021 16.12 GMT

Hong Kong’s first “patriots only” legislative election on Sunday was marked by what could be a record low turnout – reflecting what critics said was widespread disapproval of recent changes to the electoral system and the wider national security crackdown in the city.

The polls, in which 153 candidates competed for 90 seats, were the first to be held since Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral processes earlier this year, reducing the ratio of directly elected seats and introducing a two-tiered candidate-vetting process by national security police and officials to ensure only “patriots” could administer the city.

Polling stations closed at 10.30 pm (14.30 GMT) with the latest figures suggesting turnout could be the lowest since the city’s 1997 handover to China.

Netherlands enters strict lockdown until 14 January as Omicron triggers Covid surge

Lockdown ‘unavoidable’ because of fifth wave caused by Omicron variant, Rutte announces

Alastair Jamieson

The Netherlands will go into a tough lockdown from Sunday morning until at least January 14 to limit a feared Covid-19 surge due to the Omicron coronavirus variant, prime minister Mark Rutte has announced.

“The Netherlands is again shutting down. That is unavoidable because of the fifth wave that is coming at us with the Omicron variant,” he told a news conference.

All non-essential stores, bars, restaurants and other public places in the country will shut from Sunday.

Gender Bias

How a Prestigious Scientific Organization Came Under Suspicion of Treating Women Unequally

In a dispute over the removal of the female director of an important scientific institution, Germany's prestigious Max Planck Society suffered a setback in court recently. The organization's president is facing allegations of gender discrimination and calls for his

By Rafaela von Bredow

From the beginning, her career had been a brilliant one. Nicole Boivin, a biologist and archaeologist, completed her doctorate at Cambridge and landed her first job there before going on to work in Paris and then, for many years, at the University of Oxford. Germany’s Max Planck Society (MPS), one of the world’s most prestigious research institutions, then appointed her as one of its "most highly qualified scientists for leadership positions in science" at the newly founded Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, where she started as director in 2016.

Boivin, who is now 51, was delighted. The institute was to bring together the disciplines of archeology, genetics and linguistics in the quest to find out how our ancestors ate, spoke and lived and where we come from.

But "the job became a nightmare," the professor says.

Islamic countries gather to plan response to growing emergency in Afghanistan

Muslim nations resolved Sunday to work with the United Nations to try to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Afghan assets in a bid to tackle a growing humanitarian crisis.

At a special meeting in Pakistan of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) delegates said they would work "to unlock the financial and banking channels to resume liquidity and flow of financial and humanitarian assistance".    

The meeting was the biggest conference on Afghanistan since the US-backed government fell in August and the Taliban returned to power.

Thousands march across Sudan protesting military takeover

Roads and bridges in the Sudanese capital Khartoum blocked as anti-coup protests take place across the country.

Hundreds of thousands of people have marched to the presidential palace in Sudan’s capital Khartoum to reject the October 25 military takeover, drawing volleys of tear gas and stun grenades from security forces, Al Jazeera correspondents have said.

The outpouring of protests on Sunday is the latest in a series of demonstrations that have continued even after the reinstatement of the prime minister.