On Day One, Biden to sign orders reversing Trump policies on climate, virus, immigration

On Day One, Biden to sign orders reversing Trump policies on climate, virus, immigration
Trump 2.jpg

US will not lift Covid-19 travel bans despite Trump statement, Biden team says US President-elect Joe Biden’s spokeswoman quickly dismissed

Stricter lockdown rules are being enacted in Portugal, the government announced Monday, as a surging COVID-19 pandemic sets grim records and pushes hospitals to the limit of their capacity.
Advertising

site- https://digg.com/@valentina-makizova

Prime Minister António Costa said too many people had taken advantage of exceptions included in the lockdown that began last Friday, with authorities reporting 70% of normal movement over the weekend.

“We are going through the most serious phase of the pandemic” so far, Costa said, urging people to comply with the rules. “This is no time for finding loopholes in the law.”

site-https://digg.com/@wonder-woman-1984

He announced that January sales at stores are banned, as are gatherings of any number of people in public areas. More police will be deployed outside schools, which remain open, to prevent students forming groups.

Traveling between districts is to be prohibited at weekends, while stores and supermarkets will have shorter opening times.

site-https://digg.com/@disney-soul-film

The pandemic has gained momentum since Christmas, when restrictions on gatherings and movement were eased for four days. Costa said experts predict cases will continue to rise through Jan. 24.

Portugal’s 14-day case notification rate per 100,000 people has almost doubled in less than two weeks, reaching 901 – the fifth highest of the 31 countries monitored by the European Centre for Disease Control, a European Union agency.

site-

Daily newsletter
Receive essential international news every morning
Subscribe

site-https://digg.com/@the-marksman-film-vf

Health authorities reported Monday 167 new deaths and 276 hospitalizations the previous day – both daily records. The number of deaths in Portugal during the pandemic surpassed 9,000, almost one fourth of them since Jan. 1.

That has placed the public health system under severe strain, with some hospitals running out of beds and having to send patients to other hospitals.

site-https://digg.com/@les-croods-2-une-nouvelle-ere

More than 5,000 COVID-19 patients are in hospital wards, almost double the number at the end of last year and a new maximum. Also, 664 patients are in intensive care, up from 483 in just over two weeks.

Portugal is holding a presidential election next Sunday. Candidates are campaigning under restrictions on gatherings.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged Israel to "halt and reverse" its decision last week to build 800 new homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

site-

The decision is "a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution, and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace" in the Middle East, Guterres said in a statement.

"The establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.

site-

"Settlement expansion... further erodes the possibility of ending the occupation and establishing a contiguous and viable sovereign Palestinian State, based on the pre-1967 lines," Guterres said.

Israel on Sunday approved the construction of 780 homes in the occupied West Bank, ordered last Monday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

site-

All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are regarded as illegal by much of the international community.

There are currently some 450,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, living amid an estimated 2.8 million Palestinians.

Australia's Nick Kyrgios dismissed world number one Novak Djokovic as a "tool" as a backlash grew against tennis players flown in for the Australian Open during a raging pandemic.

site-

Kyrgios joined a wave of criticism of the Serb for reportedly issuing a list of demands for quarantined players who have arrived in Melbourne and Adelaide on chartered flights.

The arrival of more than 1,000 players and staff, including four people who tested positive, has raised hackles in a country which is largely coronavirus-free, and especially in Melbourne which came out of a four-month lockdown in October.

site-

"Djokovic is a tool," Kyrgios tweeted, after the Serb led a chorus of player complaints about conditions in locked-down hotel rooms.

At least 72 players have been barred from leaving their rooms for two weeks after coronavirus cases were detected on their charter flights into the country.

site-

Others are allowed out of their rooms for up to five hours a day to train under strictly-controlled conditions.

The 33-year-old Serb and reigning Australian Open champion is among several stars -- others include Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Rafael Nadal -- who were allowed to fly into Adelaide where they enjoy better facilities such as balconies on their hotel rooms, unlike the majority in Melbourne, the Australian Open's host city.

But Djokovic reportedly issued a list of demands in a letter to Tennis Australia that included moving quarantined players into private homes with tennis courts and getting them better meals.

site-

Australian media zeroed in on the demands, portraying them as petulant and selfish, while showing images of Djokovic not wearing a mask in a players' minibus, which would be required in most taxis and rideshares in Australia.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews smashed back Djokovic's demands. "There's no special treatment here. Because the virus doesn't treat you specially, so neither do we," he said on Monday.

site-

In Australia many are also questioning why the players and staff were flown in for the event, when tens of thousands of Australians remain stranded overseas.

Meanwhile Kyrgios also took aim at fellow Australian player Bernard Tomic's girlfriend, Vanessa Sierra, after she complained in an online video about cold food and having to wash her own hair in quarantine.

"I don't mind Bernie but his Mrs obviously has no perspective, ridiculous scenes," Kyrgios said on Twitter.

site-

Djokovic's actions around the tournament are being closely watched, in part due to his seeming nonchalance about the virus in the past.

Last year, the 17-time major champion organised a series of exhibition events in the Balkans at which social distancing was minimal.

site-

He and several other players later tested positive for the virus, as well as his wife Jelena.

Despite the controversies, the Australian Open is due to begin in Melbourne on February 8, having already been delayed three weeks.

Trump 3.jpg

DONALD TRUMP
CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)
BIDEN INAUGURATION
PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT