Ozil leaves Arsenal for Turkey's Fenerbahce

January 18, 2021

Footballer Mesut Ozil confirmed at the weekend that he is leaving Arsenal for Turkish club Fenerbahce. The 32-year-old, who has Turkish roots, arrived in Istanbul yesterday to have a medical and complete the deal.

Ozil told Turkish NTV yesterday that he is "very happy, very excited" to be joining Fenerbahce and would "wear the shirt with pride".

He was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that he is a Fenerbahce fan. "That is why I am very happy to be coming to Turkey to play for the club. I'm very excited. God gave me the chance to wear this shirt as a Fenerbahce fan. God willing, I will wear it with honor and do everything I can for the team."

The German-born World Cup winner has faced almost a year of frustration at Arsenal after apparently being frozen out by manager Mikel Arteta. Ozil was omitted from Arsenal's English Premier League and Europa League squads at the start of the current season. The last time he played for Arsenal was in a 1-0 win over West Ham on 7 March last year.

Despite the long break from first team football, Ozil insists that he is match fit, telling NTV, "I haven't played a match in a while, but I am physically fit, I have no issues." He pointed out that he had continued to train with the first team at Arsenal throughout his prolonged absence from the match day squad.

Ozil's contract with the London club was due to expire at the end of the 2020/21 season. He has reportedly agreed to a £285,000-a-week pay cut to join Fenerbahce on a free transfer. However, he will scoop a £4.5m signing bonus on top of a £225,000 reward if Fenerbahce qualify for the Champions League, as well as £445,000 if the club wins the Turkish Super League.

According to Turkish media reports, the former German international player is signing a three-and-a-half-year deal with the Istanbul side, which is currently second in the league behind Besiktas.

It is not yet clear what squad number Ozil will wear. His preferred number 10 is currently worn by striker Mbwana Samatta. He tweeted "67" with a heart emoji yesterday, prompting his Twitter followers to conclude that it is his new shirt number. Al Jazeera, however, noted that the digits correspond to the first two numbers of the post code of Zonguldak in Turkey, where the player's family come from.

Source: Middle East Monitor.

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210118-ozil-leaves-arsenal-for-turkeys-fenerbahce/.

UK authorizes Merck antiviral pill, 1st shown to treat COVID

November 04, 2021

LONDON (AP) — Britain granted conditional authorization on Thursday to the first pill shown to successfully treat COVID-19 so far. It also is the first country to OK the treatment from drugmaker Merck, although it wasn't immediately clear how quickly the pill would be available.

The pill was licensed for adults 18 and older who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have at least one risk factor for developing severe disease, such as obesity or heart disease. Patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 would take four pills of the drug, known molnupiravir, twice a day for five days.

An antiviral pill that reduces symptoms and speeds recovery could prove groundbreaking, easing caseloads on hospitals and helping to curb outbreaks in poorer countries with fragile health systems. It would also bolster the two-pronged approach to the pandemic: treatment, by way of medication, and prevention, primarily through vaccinations.

Molnupiravir is also pending review with regulators in the U.S., the European Union and elsewhere. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced last month it would convene a panel of independent experts to scrutinize the pill's safety and effectiveness in late November.

Initial supplies will be limited. Merck has said it can produce 10 million treatment courses through the end of the year, but much of that supply has already been purchased by governments worldwide. In October, U.K. officials announced they secured 480,000 courses of molnupiravir and expected thousands of vulnerable Britons to have access to the treatment this winter via a national study.

“Today is a historic day for our country, as the U.K. is now the first country in the world to approve an antiviral that can be taken at home for COVID-19," British health secretary Sajid Javid said. “We are working at pace across the government and with the NHS to set out plans to deploy molnupiravir to patients through a national study as soon as possible," he said in a statement, referring to the U.K.'s National Health Service. Doctors said the treatment would be particularly significant for people who don't respond well to vaccination.

Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutic have requested clearance for the drug with regulators around the world for adults with early cases of COVID-19 who are at risk for severe disease or hospitalization. That's roughly the same group targeted for treatment with infused COVID-19 antibody drugs, the standard of care in many countries for patients who don't yet require hospitalization.

Merck announced preliminary results in September showing its drug cut hospitalizations and deaths by half among patients with early COVID-19 symptoms. The results haven't yet been peer reviewed or published in a scientific journal.

The company also didn't disclose details on molnupiravir’s side effects, except to say that rates of those problems were similar between people who got the drug and those who received dummy pills. The drug targets an enzyme the coronavirus uses to reproduce itself, inserting errors into its genetic code that slow its ability to spread and take over human cells. That genetic activity has led some independent experts to question whether the drug could potentially cause mutations leading to birth defects or tumors.

Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said molnupiravir's ability to interact with DNA and cause mutations had been studied “extensively” and that it wasn't found to pose a risk to humans.

“Studies in rats showed that (molnupiravir) may cause harmful effects to the unborn offspring, although this was at doses which were higher than those that will be given to humans, and these effects were not observed in other animals,” the agency said in an email.

In company trials, both men and women were instructed to either use contraception or abstain from sex. Pregnant women were excluded from the study. Merck has stated that the drug is safe when used as directed.

Molnupiravir was initially studied as a potential flu therapy with funding from the U.S. government. Last year, researchers at Emory University decided to repurpose the drug as a potential COVID-19 treatment. They then licensed the drug to Ridgeback and partner Merck.

Last week, Merck agreed to allow other drugmakers to make its COVID-19 pill, in a move aimed at helping millions of people in poorer countries get access. The Medicines Patent Pool, a U.N.-backed group, said Merck will not receive royalties under the agreement for as long as the World Health Organization deems COVID-19 to be a global emergency.

But the deal was criticized by some activists for excluding many middle-income countries capable of making millions of treatments, including Brazil and China. Still, experts commended Merck for agreeing to widely share its formula and promising to help any companies who need technological help in making their drug — something no coronavirus vaccine producers have agreed to.

“Unlike the grotesquely unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the poorest countries will not have to wait at the back of the queue for molnupiravir,” said Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni, a senior health adviser to the People's Vaccine Alliance. Fewer than 1% of the world's COVID-19 vaccines have gone to poor countries and experts hope easier-to-dispense treatments will help them curb the pandemic.

Merck previously announced licensing deals with several Indian makers of generic drugs to manufacture lower-cost versions of molnupiravir for developing countries. The U.S. has agreed to pay roughly $700 per course of the drug for about 1.7 million treatments. Merck says it plans to use a tiered pricing strategy for developing countries. A review by Harvard University and King's College London estimated the drug costs about $18 to make each 40-pill course of treatment.

While other treatments have been cleared to treat COVID-19, including steroids and monoclonal antibodies, those are administered by injection or infusion and are mostly used in hospitals and other health care facilities.

Matthew Perrone reported from Washington.

Scientists urge UK to prep rapid return of COVID measures

October 22, 2021

LONDON (AP) — The British government’s scientific advisers urged the government on Friday to ensure coronavirus restrictions can be introduced rapidly, as the rate of new infections continues to grow.

Britain has recorded an average of 47,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day in the past week, up 18% from the week before, according to figures released on Friday. There was an average of 135 deaths a day, a 16% rise from the previous week. Britain has recorded more than 139,000 coronavirus deaths during the pandemic, the highest toll in Europe after Russia.

Many scientists are urging the government to reintroduce some of the measures that it lifted three months ago when more than a year of restrictions ended, including mandatory mask-wearing indoors, social distancing and work-from-home advice.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, a body of scientists that advises the government, says “policy work on the potential reintroduction of measures should be undertaken now so that it can be ready for rapid deployment,” according to minutes of a meeting held last week.

The group said that of all the measures the government is considering, the “re-introduction of working from home guidance is likely to have the greatest individual impact on transmission.” Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government says it may reimpose some restrictions as part of a fall and winter “Plan B” — but not yet.

Britain is relying almost exclusively on vaccines to keep the virus at bay during the fall and winter months, when respiratory viruses circulate most widely. Almost 80% of people 12 and over in the U.K. have received two vaccine doses and millions are being offered a booster shot, including everyone over 50.

Scientific modelers in the advisory group said a big spike in hospitalizations like the one seen last winter was increasingly unlikely, and that booster vaccines could keep the spread of the virus “at levels similar to or lower than currently observed.” But they said there could still be thousands more coronavirus deaths in the coming months.

The prime minister, who visited a vaccination center in London on Friday, said the current infection level was “not outside the parameters of what was predicted." Johnson urged people to take “commonsensical” precautions such as wearing a mask, and to get a booster shot as soon as they were eligible — six months after the second dose.

Though some have suggested a new lockdown may be needed if cases continue to rise, Johnson dismissed the idea. “At the moment that we see absolutely nothing to indicate that that’s on the cards at all,” he said.

UK faces calls for 'Plan B' with virus cases high and rising

October 19, 2021

LONDON (AP) — Life has returned to normal for millions in Britain since coronavirus restrictions were lifted over the summer. But while the rules have vanished, the virus hasn't. Many scientists are now calling on the government to reimpose social restrictions and speed up booster vaccinations as coronavirus infection rates, already Europe’s highest, rise still further.

The U.K. recorded 43,738 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, slightly down from the 49,156 reported Monday, which was the largest number since mid-July. New infections have averaged more than 44,000 a day over the past week, a 16% increase on the week before.

Last week, the Office for National Statistics estimated that one in 60 people in England had the virus, one of the highest levels seen in Britain during the pandemic. In July, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government lifted all the legal restrictions that had been imposed more than a year earlier to slow the spread of the virus, including face coverings indoors and social distancing rules. Nightclubs and other crowded venues were allowed to open at full capacity, and people were no longer advised to work from home if they could.

Some modelers feared a big spike in cases after the opening-up. That didn't occur, but infections remained high, and recently have begun to increase — especially among children, who largely remain unvaccinated.

Also rising are hospitalizations and deaths, which have averaged 130 a day over the past week, with 223 reported Tuesday alone. That is far lower than when cases were last this high, before much of the population was vaccinated, but still too high, critics of the government say. Britain has recorded more than 138,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest total in Europe after Russia.

Against that backdrop, some feel Britons have been too quick to return to pre-pandemic behavior. Masks and social distancing have all but vanished in most settings in England, including schools, though Scotland and other parts of the U.K. remain a bit more strict. Even in shops, where masks are recommended, and on the London transit network, where they are mandatory, adherence is patchy.

A plan to require proof of vaccination to attend nightclubs, concerts and other mass events in England was dropped by the Conservative government amid opposition from lawmakers, though Scotland introduced a vaccine pass program this month.

Some scientists say a bigger factor is waning immunity. Britain’s vaccination program got off to a quick start, with shots given to the elderly and vulnerable beginning in December 2020, and so far almost 80% of eligible people have received two doses. The early start means millions of people have been vaccinated for more than six months, and studies have suggested vaccines’ protection gradually wanes over time.

Millions of people in Britain are being offered booster shots, but critics say the program is moving too slowly, at about 180,000 doses a day. More than half of the people eligible for a booster dose haven't yet received one.

The U.K. also waited longer than the U.S. and many European nations to vaccinate children ages 12-15, and only about 15% in that age group in England have had a shot since they became eligible last month.

“It’s critical we accelerate the booster program,” said epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. Ferguson said one factor influencing the U.K.'s high case numbers was that it has relied heavily on the AstraZeneca vaccine, “and, while that protects very well against very severe outcomes of COVID, it protects slightly less well than Pfizer against infection and transmission, particularly in the face of the delta variant.”

He also noted that “most Western European countries have kept in place more control measures, vaccine mandates, mask-wearing mandates, and tend to have lower case numbers and certainly not case numbers which are going up as fast as we’ve got.”

“But at the end of the day this is a policy decision for government to make,” he told the BBC. Scientists in the U.K. are also keeping an eye on a new subvariant of the dominant delta strain of the virus. The mutation, known as AY4.2, accounts for a small but growing number of cases in Britain.

Francois Balloux, director of the University College London Genetics Institute, said the subvariant might be slightly more transmissible and was being “closely monitored." But he said evidence suggested “it hasn’t been driving the recent increase in case numbers in the U.K.”

A report by lawmakers released last week concluded that the British government waited too long to impose a lockdown in the early days of the pandemic, missing a chance to contain the disease and leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths. Critics say it is repeating that mistake.

Last month, the prime minister said the country might need to move to a “Plan B” — reintroducing measures such as mandatory masks and bringing in vaccine passes — if cases rose so high in the fall and winter that the health system came under “unsustainable” strain.

For now, the government says it won’t change course, but will try to boost vaccination rates, with a new ad campaign and an increased number of sites outside of schools where kids can receive their shots.

Johnson’s spokesman, Max Blain, said “we always knew the next few months would be challenging.” But he said the government was trying to protect “both lives and livelihoods.” “Clearly we are keeping a very close eye on rising case rates,” Blain said. “The most important message for the public to understand is the vital importance of the booster program.

But, he added: “There are no plans to move to Plan B.”

India announces COVID-19 tests and quarantine for Britons

October 01, 2021

NEW DELHI (AP) — India said Friday that British nationals arriving in the country will be subjected to COVID-19 tests and a 10-day mandatory quarantine, in response to the same measures imposed on Indians visiting the U.K.

India has been demanding that Britain revoke what it called a “discriminatory” advisory that includes Indians even if they are fully vaccinated with the Indian-made AstraZeneca shots. India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had discussed the issue with British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in a meeting in New York earlier this week.

A foreign ministry official said that starting on Monday, all British arrivals, irrespective of their vaccination status, will have to undertake RT-PRC test within 72 hours before travel, another test on arrival in India and the third one eight days later.

They will also have to quarantine at home or at their destination address for 10 days, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters. The U.K. Foreign Commonwealth and Development office said Friday it was in contact with Indian authorities. It said “the Indian authorities are responsible for setting and enforcing the rules of entry into India.''

The trouble started when Britain’s government announced what it billed as a simplification of its travel rules including allowing fully vaccinated travelers arriving in England from much of the world to skip quarantine and take fewer tests.

But the fine print on who was considered fully vaccinated proved complicated. In order to skip self-isolation, travelers must have received a vaccine under the American, British or European programs or have received a U.K.-authorized shot from an approved health body. Bodies in more than a dozen countries in Asia, the Caribbean and the Middle East made it to the list, However, India’s program was not included, nor were any programs in Africa.

Countries that received hundreds of thousands of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the U.K. itself were left wondering why their vaccination programs weren’t good enough in the eyes of the British government. That’s leading to concerns that the rules could exacerbate already worrying vaccine hesitancy in Africa as some question whether the doses available there don’t measure up.

The vast majority of Indians have been vaccinated with Indian-made AstraZeneca shots. The spat demonstrates an exasperation with the U.K. position on a number of issues, said Rob Yates, director of the global health program at the Chatham House think tank in London.

Yates said, for example, the UK is one of the worst performers among the Group of Seven industrialized countries in re-allocating vaccines it doesn’t need using the COVAX facility, which aims for equitable distribution of vaccines. It has also blocked efforts to waive vaccine patents.

“I think this is indicative of the lack of solidarity that has been shown by governments and by politicians, both in locking down and opening up,″ he said. “It’s unfortunate that we’re seeing tit-for-tat. In terms of humanity and for us all this is what we want to be avoiding. We want much more cooperation.″

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been produced by Serum Institute of India. Others have received COVAXIN, a vaccine produced by an Indian company that is not used in Britain. India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, said earlier this week that it will resume exports and donations of surplus coronavirus vaccines in October after a monthslong freeze because of the massive surge in domestic infections.

Associated Press writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

UK families see hard times ahead as COVID programs end

September 30, 2021

LONDON (AP) — Diana Gaglio has been in the economic crosshairs of the pandemic for the past 18 months. The 53-year-old from Bedfordshire, north of London, was furloughed from her job as entertainment manager for a holiday company when COVID-19 gutted the travel industry, then lost her job altogether just before Christmas. Now her temporary job at a virus testing center is coming to an end, just as the government scraps the emergency program that provided an income the last time she was out of work.

“The market is going to be flooded,’’ Gaglio said. “If it wasn’t hard already, it’s going to be harder.’’ Gaglio is one of millions of people across the U.K. who are facing a long, bleak winter as the rising cost of living coincides with the end of government programs that once shielded households from the economic fallout of COVID-19.

The biggest of those programs, which sought to preserve jobs by subsidizing the wages of workers whose hours were cut due to the pandemic, ends on Thursday. Some 1.6 million people were still supported by the so-called furlough program this month, down from a high of 8.9 million in May of last year.

Also, a temporary increase in welfare payments ends next week, cutting benefits by almost 1,100 pounds ($1,480) a year; and protections for renters squeezed by the pandemic are being phased out. All of this comes as 15 million households face a 12% jump in energy bills, adding to consumer price inflation that reached the highest level in more than nine years last month.

Adding to the sense of gloom, drivers are facing long lines to fill their tanks after a truck driver shortage curtailed fuel deliveries. Newspapers warn of a scarcity of everything from toys to turkeys this Christmas unless the crisis is resolved soon.

“The country and the labor market is in for a really bumpy autumn,’’ said Charlie McCurdy, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, a think-tank focused on improving living standards for those on low to middle incomes. “We can expect a living standard squeeze for families across the country.”

With front page headlines screaming “Prepare for winter of discontent” and “Boris in battle to save Xmas,” the bad news is fueling concerns about Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership and heaping pressure on him to do more to help struggling consumers.

Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labor Party, on Wednesday mocked Johnson’s promise to “level up” incomes and economic opportunity. “Level up?’’ Starmer said during a speech at the party’s annual conference. “You can’t even fill up.”

The government has resisted calls to reverse course, saying the economy is rebounding from the pandemic and it is time to end emergency support programs. Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said Thursday that other programs, including job training, recovery loans for businesses and a recent increase in housing benefits would remain in place. The government has spent 400 billion pounds to support the economy during the pandemic.

“With the recovery well underway, and more than 1 million job vacancies, now is the right time for the scheme to draw to a close,’’ he said of the furlough program. “But that in no way means the end of our support.’’

The U.K. economy has recovered strongly since the depths of the pandemic, although gross domestic product remains about 2.1% smaller than it was in February 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The recovery has pushed job vacancies to record levels as employers hire staff to meet increasing demand. But while the future may look bright for truck drivers and hospitality workers, things are a lot less hopeful for other professions.

The surge in vacancies has been driven by openings for low-paid workers, with more than two-thirds of unemployed jobseekers facing increased competition for jobs, according to the London-based Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The situation is particularly bad for older workers. Data released Thursday by the IFS showed that just 35% of workers over 50 had found work six months after being laid off during the pandemic, compared with 64% of younger workers.

Stuart Lewis, founder of Rest Less, a digital community for people over 50, said his members are anxious about the darkening financial situation. “We’re seeing there’s concerns around the pandemic and the health risks that are still lingering for some,” he said. “There’s additional concerns, as well, around affordability, around the financial impact as people run into Christmas. There’s a perfect storm of challenges that many people are concerned about in the coming months.”

Gaglio is one of them. Before the pandemic she was a respected manager, booking cabaret performers, comedians and singers for an international holiday company and spending much of her year abroad. Now she’s back in England, renting a room in someone else’s house to keep costs down as she tries to get her career back on track.

But she fears that recruiters and employers don’t look beyond her age to see the vivacious, curious and confident woman she remains. “Other people see your face and your skin and it's older — they have a perception of you,” she said. “Maybe they need to get to know me better.”

Employers are also in a bind. Take Tool Shop, a hardware chain that had 12 shops and 50 employees before high property taxes and the shift toward online shopping closed three stores in 2019. The pandemic added to those pressures, forcing Tool Shop to close five more outlets and merge two others last year, leaving it with just three shops and 11 staff members. The company used to draw up a multi-year strategy targeting growth and expansion. Now the planning horizon is three months.

Tool Shop is hoping customers will return as the pandemic eases and people return to their usual routines, said Sara Edmiston, the company’s human resources director. Tool Shop employee Martin Matio, 69, is betting people will recognize that personal service is valuable and seeing what you are buying is better than looking at a tiny picture on a website.

Matio quickly illustrates his understanding of the London household, together with instant recall on where items can be found in a shop packed to the rafters. Got a moth problem? He’s got just the thing. Mold? No problem.

Returns? No questions asked. Jokes? Part of the service. “I believe physical contact is the most important thing; customers want to know what they are buying’’ he said, comparing retail transactions to courtship. “If I’m going to get married, I want to see the girl.”

Associated Press Writer Khadija Kothia contributed.

WikiLeaks founder Assange denied bail in UK

January 06, 2021

LONDON (AP) — A British judge on Wednesday denied bail to WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, ordering him to remain in a high-security prison while U.K. courts decide whether he will be sent to the United States to face espionage charges.

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said Assange must remain in prison while the courts consider an appeal by U.S. authorities against her decision not to extradite him. The judge said Assange “has an incentive to abscond” and there is a good chance he would fail to return to court if freed.

On Monday, Baraitser rejected an American request to send Assange to the U.S. to face spying charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago. She denied extradition on health grounds, saying the 49-year-old Australian was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions.

The ruling means Assange must remain in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison where he has been held since he was arrested in April 2019 for skipping bail during a separate legal battle seven years earlier.

Assange's partner, Stella Moris, said the decision was “a huge disappointment.” WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said "it is inhumane. It is illogical.” Lawyers for the U.S. government have appealed the decision not to extradite Assange, and the case will be heard by Britain's Hugh Court at an unspecified date.

Clair Dobbin, a British lawyer acting for the U.S., said Assange had shown he would go “to almost any length” to avoid extradition, and it was likely he would flee if granted bail. She noted that Assange had spent seven years inside Ecuadorian Embassy in London after seeking refuge there from a Swedish extradition request in 2012.

Dobbin said Assange had the “resources, abilities and sheer wherewithal” to evade justice once again, and noted that Mexico has said it will offer him asylum. But Assange's lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said the judge's decision to refuse extradition “massively reduces” any motivation to abscond.

"Mr. Assange has every reason to stay in this jurisdiction where he has the protection of the rule of law and this court’s decision," he said. Fitzgerald said it's also unclear whether the incoming Joe Biden administration will pursue the prosecution, initiated under President Donald Trump.

Fitzgerald said Assange would be safer awaiting the outcome of the judicial process at home with Moris and their two young sons — fathered while he was in the embassy — than in prison, where there is “a very grave crisis of COVID.”

But the judge ruled that Assange still had a strong motive to flee. “As far as Mr. Assange is concerned this case has not yet been won,” she said. “Mr. Assange still has an incentive to abscond from these as yet unresolved proceedings.”

U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.

American prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that were later published by WikiLeaks. Lawyers for Assange argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The judge rejected that argument in her extradition ruling, saying Assange’s actions, if proven, would amount to offenses “that would not be protected by his right to freedom of speech.” She also said the U.S. judicial system would give him a fair trial.

But the judge agreed that U.S. prison conditions would be oppressive, saying there was a “real risk” he would be sent to the Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado. It is the highest security prison in the U.S., also holding Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski and Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

“I am satisfied that, in these harsh conditions, Mr. Assange’s mental health would deteriorate, causing him to commit suicide," she said in her ruling. Assange’s legal troubles began in 2010, when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. In 2012, Assange jumped bail and sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was beyond the reach of U.K. and Swedish authorities — but also effectively was a prisoner in the tiny diplomatic mission.

The relationship between Assange and his hosts eventually soured, and he was evicted from the embassy in April 2019. British police immediately arrested him for breaching bail in 2012. Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed, but Assange has remained in prison throughout his extradition hearing.

UK judge to decide on bail for WikiLeaks' imprisoned Assange

January 06, 2021

LONDON (AP) — A British judge is set to decide Wednesday whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be released from the prison where he has been held for more than a year and a half as he fights extradition to the United States.

Assange has been detained at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since April 2019, when he was arrested for skipping bail during a separate legal battle seven years earlier. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser was presiding over a bail hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, two days after she rejected an American request to send Assange to the U.S. to face espionage charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago.

The judge denied extradition on health grounds, saying the 49-year-old Australian is likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. The judge ruled "the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America.”

Lawyers for the U.S. government say they will appeal the decision, and the U.S. Department of Justice says it will continue to seek Assange’s extradition. Clair Dobbin, a British lawyer acting for the U.S., said Assange had shown he would go “to almost any length” to avoid extradition, and it was likely he would flee if granted bail.

She noted that Assange had spent seven years inside Ecuadorian Embassy in London after seeking refuge there from a Swedish extradition request in 2012. Dobbin said Assange had the “resources, abilities and sheer wherewithal” to evade justice once again, and noted that Mexico has said it will offer him asylum.

U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.

U.S. prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that were later published by WikiLeaks. Lawyers for Assange argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The judge rejected that argument in her extradition ruling, saying Assange’s actions, if proven, would amount to offenses “that would not be protected by his right to freedom of speech.” She also said the U.S. judicial system would give him a fair trial.

Assange’s legal troubles began in 2010, when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. In 2012, Assange jumped bail and sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was beyond the reach of U.K. and Swedish authorities — but also effectively was a prisoner in the tiny diplomatic mission.

The relationship between Assange and his hosts eventually soured, and he was evicted from the embassy in April 2019. British police immediately arrested him for breaching bail in 2012. Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed, but Assange has remained in prison throughout his extradition hearing.

UK seeks to avert shortages with COVID tests for food staff

July 23, 2021

LONDON (AP) — The British government has sought to ease food supply pressures in England by exempting certain workers from quarantine rules. In an announcement late Thursday following mounting pressure from retailers facing staff shortages and empty shelves, it outlined plans for daily COVID-19 testing of critical food industry workers that will effectively allow those who test negative to continue working even if they have been notified on their phones to self-isolate due to contact with someone with the virus.

The move, along with a limited relaxation of self-isolation rules in other key sectors and vital public services, including essential transport, the emergency services and energy industry, came amid growing concerns within government of the impact of the so-called “pingdemic” on many key sectors of the British economy.

Hundreds of thousands of people, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, are having to self-isolate for 10 days after being informed by the National Health Service’s test and trace app that they have come into close contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus.

It was primarily concerns over food supplies that drove the government's change in approach as more and more workers, including crucial delivery drivers, were having to self-isolate, leading to scenes of empty supermarket shelves and fears of panic-buying by anxious consumers.

The government said it has identified priority locations, including the largest supermarket distribution centers, where testing will begin this week. The program will be expanded to as many as 500 sites next week.

"As we manage this virus and do everything we can to break chains of transmission, daily contact testing of workers in this vital sector will help to minimize the disruption caused by rising cases in the coming weeks, while ensuring workers are not put at risk,” said Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who is self-isolating too after testing positive for the virus last weekend.

The government's new policy was welcomed by retailers but many said the government must be prepared to take further action if necessary, potentially bringing forward its previously announced plan to change the self-isolation rules on Aug. 16.

On that date, the government has said it would exempt double-jabbed individuals from the self-isolation rules. That change comes nearly a month after most legal coronavirus rules in England were lifted. The other nations of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — are being more cautious in lifting restrictions.

“It is absolutely vital that government makes up for lost time and rolls out this new scheme as fast as possible,” said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium. “Disruption is limited at the moment, and retailers are monitoring the situation closely.”

Alongside the measures to protect food supplies, the government published guidance on Thursday night setting out limited exemptions for 16 other critical workers if their inability to work would have a “major detrimental impact” or risk national security.. However, the guidance is already proving difficult to understand.

Under the new guidance, fully vaccinated employees providing what are deemed critical services would be able to keep working and avoid self-isolation if they have been named on a list kept updated by officials.

The government said the policy is not a “blanket exemption” for all employees in a sector — for instance, while railway signal operators on whom the network depends may be given an exemption, individual train drivers are unlikely to be.

“While the announcement of a process which may exempt select critical workers from self-isolation in England will be a relief to some businesses, it will leave many more still facing critical staff shortages and lost revenue as the number of people being asked to isolate remains high," said Hannah Essex, from the British Chambers of Commerce.

UK health minister admits virus rules breach with embrace

June 25, 2021

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s health minister apologized Friday for breaching national coronavirus restrictions after a newspaper ran pictures of him embracing a woman with whom he allegedly had an affair. Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has led the country’s response to the pandemic, is the latest in a string of British officials to be accused of breaching restrictions they imposed on the rest of the population to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The tabloid Sun newspaper ran images appearing to show the married Hancock and a senior aide kissing in an office at the Department of Health. It said the closed circuit television images were taken May 6 — 11 days before lockdown rules were eased to allow hugs and other physical contact with people outside one’s own household.

Hancock said in a statement that “I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances." “I have let people down and am very sorry,” he said. “I remain focused on working to get the country out of this pandemic, and would be grateful for privacy for my family on this personal matter.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson stood by Hancock, but the main opposition Labor Party said he should be fired for breaking social distancing and, potentially, government hiring rules. “If Matt Hancock has been secretly having a relationship with an adviser in his office — who he personally appointed to a taxpayer-funded role — it is a blatant abuse of power and a clear conflict of interest,” said Labor chairwoman Anneliese Dodds.

“His position is hopelessly untenable. Boris Johnson should sack him.” Johnson spokesman Jamie Davies said the prime minister had full confidence in Hancock. “The prime minister has accepted the health secretary’s apology and considers the matter closed,” he said. “He and the rest of the government remain focused on continuing to tackle the pandemic.”

Davies said “the appointment followed all the correct procedures.” The aide was employed last year as an unpaid adviser and this year became a non-executive director at the Department of Health, a role that pays about 15,000 pounds ($21,000) a year.

Johnson’s Conservative government has been branded a “chumocracy” by critics for hiring special advisers and contractors from outside the civil service without long-customary levels of scrutiny. Hancock’s department has been accused of waiving procurement rules to award lucrative contracts for protective equipment and other medical essentials, often to personal contacts. Hancock has said he was driven by the need to secure essential supplies quickly at the height of the outbreak.

Hancock has faced weeks of pressure since the prime minister's former top aide, Dominic Cummings, accused him of botching the government’s response to the pandemic. Cummings, now a bitter critic of the government he once served, told lawmakers last month that Hancock “should have been fired” for alleged lies and errors. He also published a WhatsApp message in which Johnson branded Hancock “totally (expletive) hopeless.”

Cummings himself was accused of breaking the rules and undermining the government’s “stay home” message when he drove 250 miles (400 kilometers) across England to his parents’ home during the spring 2020 lockdown. Johnson resisted pressure to fire him, but Cummings left his job in November amid a power struggle in the prime minister's office.

Hugs to be allowed in England as part of lockdown easing

May 10, 2021

LONDON (AP) — In less than a week, people in England will be able to give friends and family a hug for the first time since restrictions were put in place in March last year at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed Monday that he has given the go-ahead for that much-missed human contact from May 17 as part of the next round of lockdown easing following a sharp fall in new coronavirus infections. Other easing measures included the reopening of pubs and restaurants indoors as well as cinemas and hotels, and allowing two households to meet up inside a home.

However, he stressed that people should exercise common sense given that social contact is the main way the virus is transmitted. He also said people should remain vigilant to unexpected changes in the coronavirus data and the spread of new variants that could bypass some of the immunity provided by Britain’s successful vaccination campaign.

“This unlocking amounts to a very considerable step on the road back to normality and I am confident we will be able to go further,” he said at a briefing from Downing Street. "This doesn’t mean that we can suddenly throw caution to the wind ... I urge you to think about the vulnerability of your loved ones whether they have had a vaccine, one or two doses, and whether there has been time for that vaccine to take effect.”

The U.K. is now recording around 2,000 new coronavirus cases a day, compared with a daily peak of nearly 70,000 in January. Daily deaths have also plummeted with only four recorded on Monday. Johnson's announcement was preceded with the news that the U.K.'s alert level was also lowered to level three from four on Monday following a “consistent” fall in cases, hospital admissions and deaths. This means that transmission of the virus is no longer deemed to be high or rising exponentially, though still being in general circulation.

In the easing next week, Johnson said that six people, or two households even if the total is higher, will be able to mix inside homes as well as in pubs and restaurants. The limits on outdoor gatherings have been raised to 30 people. Indoor entertainment activities such as cinemas, soft play areas, adult group sports, exercise classes and hotels are also allowed to reopen next Monday. And students won't have to wear face coverings in class.

Since the lockdown started to be eased in recent weeks as part of a plan the government insists is being driven by “data, not dates,” the mixing of households was only allowed outdoors, such as in a garden or restaurant patio, provided that social distancing was followed.

The government previously announced a tentative reopening of foreign travel from May 17, with only a handful of destinations deemed safe enough to ditch the 10-day quarantine requirements upon return. Portugal and Iceland now have no quarantine requirements but other popular destinations such as France, Italy, Spain and Greece will still require quarantining and a series of coronavirus tests.

Similar restrictions are being eased in the other parts of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — following a sharp fall in new infections as a result of a long winter lockdown and the rapid rollout of vaccines.

Although the U.K. has recorded Europe's highest coronavirus death toll, with more than 127,500 dead, new infections have dropped dramatically. In addition, the success of Britain's vaccine rollout has raised hopes that this easing will not see the same virus resurgence that happened last fall following a lifting of restrictions during the summer.

Around 53% of the British population have received one dose of vaccine while more than a quarter have had two jabs — one of the speediest vaccine rollouts in the world. The ensuing round of lockdown easing is expected on June 21. The hope is that all other limits on social contacts will be lifted then. Johnson said more details will be laid out later this month including whether social distancing will be scrapped and whether vaccine passports will have a role in the future.

Though the coronavirus backdrop is clearly much improved, there are concerns that the government is being overly hasty with lifting the restrictions on social contact at a time when some parts of the world, such as India, are in the midst of a huge resurgence of the virus, and the vaccine rollout still has a way to go.

Gurch Randhawa, a professor of diversity in public health at the University of Bedfordshire, is one who's wary, and cautioned about potential mixed messaging coming from the government. “It is no doubt tempting to relax social distancing, offer the glimmer of a much needed hug, and lift restrictions on international travel, but this could be a big mistake at this stage of the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

“As a minimum, the government should be advising only those have received both vaccination doses to be hugging each other, and even, a short hug, with faces directed away from each other to minimize risk of COVID-19 transmission,” he added.

UK to ease holiday travel ban yet keeps most quarantines

May 07, 2021

LONDON (AP) — Britain announced a “first tentative step” Friday toward resuming international travel, saying U.K. citizens will be able to travel to countries including Portugal, Iceland and Israel later this month without having to quarantine upon their return.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the country's current blanket ban on overseas vacations will be replaced on May 17 by a traffic-light system classifying countries as low, medium or high risk. The “green list” of 12 low-risk territories also includes Gibraltar, the Faroe Islands and the Falkland Islands — but not major vacation destinations for Britons such as France, Italy, Spain and Greece, which are on the “amber” list. Britons traveling to those countries, and many others including the United States and Canada, will have to self-isolate for 10 days when they return.

Britons hoping for an overseas vacation this summer without a quarantine do not have a lot to choose from. Several countries on the green list are still closed to British visitors, including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Others are little-visited, such as the remote islands of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.

“This is not a list generated and created to think about where people want to lie on beaches and then twist the science to fit it," Shapps said at a news conference. He said the list would be reviewed regularly and would likely be expanded.

“We in this country have managed to construct a fortress against COVID. But the disease is still prevalent in other parts of the world, most notably at the moment in India,” he said. “That’s why today’s announcement, removing the ‘stay in the U.K.’ restrictions from May 17, is necessarily cautious," he said.

All but essential travel from Britain remains barred to “red list” countries with severe outbreaks, including India and South Africa, and people returning from them face 10 days of mandatory quarantine in a supervised hotel. On Friday the British government added Nepal, the Maldives and Turkey to that list.

Turkey's addition, which takes effect Wednesday, throws into doubt the ability of players and fans to travel to the Champions League soccer final between two English teams — Manchester City and Chelsea — which is due to be played in Istanbul on May 29.

Shapps said the government was “very open” to holding the game in Britain, but that it was a decision for soccer's European governing body, UEFA. May 17 is the next date on the British government’s roadmap out of lockdown. Pubs and restaurants in England can reopen indoor areas that day, and venues including theaters and cinemas can welcome limited audiences.

Britain has recorded more than 127,500 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe. But recent infections and deaths have plummeted thanks to extensive lockdowns and a rapid vaccination program. Two-thirds of U.K. adults have received at least one vaccine jab and almost a third have had both doses.

The campaign has relied heavily on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, whose use has been restricted in some European countries because of a potential link to extremely rare blood clots. In a change of advice, British authorities said Friday that people under 40 will not be given the AstraZeneca vaccine if another shot was available.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization said people aged 30 to 39 without underlying health conditions should receive an alternative vaccine, “where available and only if this does not cause substantial delays in being vaccinated.” Last month it gave the same advice for people under 30.

”Any vaccine offered early is preferable to a vaccine offered too late,” said Wei Shen Lim, who chairs the JCVI, an expert body that advises the government. England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, said the government expects to follow the new advice and still meet its target of giving everyone 18 and over a vaccine jab by July 31.

“We have to maintain the pace and scale of the U.K. vaccination program,” Van-Tam said, adding that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective and “thousands are alive today” because they received it.

Britain is also using vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. British health officials say the risk from COVID-19 far exceeds any risk from the AstraZeneca vaccine for the vast majority of people, but the calculation is “more finely balanced” for younger groups, who tend not to suffer serious illness from coronavirus infections.

Up to April 28, Britain’s medicines regulator had received 242 reports of blood clots accompanied by low platelet count in people who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine, out of 28.5 million doses given. There were 49 deaths.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, which is cheaper and easier to store than Pfizer or Moderna, is critical to global immunization campaigns. It is a pillar of the U.N.-backed program known as COVAX that aims to get vaccines to some of the world’s poorest countries.

Pubs, hairdressers set to reopen as UK eases virus lockdown

April 11, 2021

LONDON (AP) — Millions of people in Britain will get their first chance in months for haircuts, casual shopping and restaurant meals on Monday, as the government takes the next step on its lockdown-lifting road map.

Nationwide restrictions have been in place in England since early January, and similar rules in the other parts of the U.K., to suppress a surge in coronavirus infections that swept the country late last year, linked to a more transmissible new variant first identified in southeast England.

Britain has had Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak, with more than 127,000 confirmed deaths. Infections, hospitalizations and deaths have all fallen thanks to the lockdown, and a mass vaccination program that has given at least one dose to more than 60% of the adult population.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson and epidemiologists have urged caution, saying that many people remain unvaccinated and relaxing social distancing rules or allowing foreign holidays this summer could bring a new spike in infections.

“The situation in the U.K. is becoming clear and is stabilizing, but people have to remember that’s not the case elsewhere,” said Peter Horby, who chairs the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Threats Advisory Group. “The pandemic is still raging globally.

“And many countries in Europe even are still seeing racing case numbers or having to reintroduce lockdowns. So it’s very hard to predict what will happen in the next couple of months,” he told Times Radio.

On Monday, nonessential shops will be allowed to reopen, along with hair salons, gyms and outdoor service at pubs and restaurants. The prime minister had promised to visit a pub for a pint to mark the occasion, but postponed the celebratory drink after the death of Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, on Friday.

Indoor drinking and dining won’t be allowed until May 17 at the earliest, and theaters, cinemas, nightclubs and most other venues remain closed, while indoor socializing is tightly restricted and foreign holidays remain banned.

The easing is good news for retail and hospitality businesses, which have endured several stretches of lockdown over the past year. But it’s a long way from business as usual; the British Beer and Pub Association estimates that just 40% of pubs in England have the space to reopen for outdoor service.

The rules apply in England. The other parts of the United Kingdom — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — are following their own, broadly similar plans.

Bouquet-bearing public honors Philip, ignoring COVID warning

April 10, 2021

LONDON (AP) — British authorities have implored people to stay away from royal palaces as they mourn the death of Prince Philip in this time of COVID-19, but they keep coming. Not just to honor him, but to support Queen Elizabeth II, who lost her husband of 73 years.

The mix included children, seniors, Sikhs and the children of African immigrants. A cross-section of British society and admirers from abroad descended on Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle on Saturday. They laid bouquets at the gates, offered prayers or just paused for a moment of reflection as they remembered a man who dedicated much of his life to public service.

Mourners talked about Philip’s work with some 780 charities and organizations, particularly his Duke of Edinburgh Award, which seeks to build confidence and resilience in young people. But they also recalled his role as the consummate royal consort, supporting the queen at thousands of public engagements and state visits.

“We had a really hard year all of us and there’s people uniting in a very special moment,'' said Carolina Przeniewska, originally from Poland, who came to Buckingham Place with her 5-year-old daughter Grace. “So I wanted her to see it and I wanted to pay respect.”

At Buckingham Palace, the queen’s London residence, well-wishers braved a chilly, gray day to line up and snake their way past the black iron gates, where tourists normally wait to watch the changing of the guard. People were allowed to approach the gates one at a time to lay their tributes as police tried to control the crowd amid Britain's coronavirus restrictions.

The crowd was smaller at Windsor Castle, west of the capital, where a steady stream of mourners quietly approached the gates to leave bright spring bouquets on a strip of lawn. People want to show their respect for both Philip and the queen, who turns 95 this month and will celebrate 70 years on the throne next year, said Nick Bullen, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of True Royalty TV.

“If the queen wasn’t already loved enough, this is just going to move it to another level now,’’ Bullen said. “This is a woman who’s going to bury her husband and then in a matter of days later be celebrating her birthday and stepping into her platinum jubilee year. … So I think people will just be rallying around the queen as much as they will the Duke of Edinburgh.”

Philip, the son of a Greek prince, and the future queen first met as teenagers. They were married in 1947 when she was 21 and he was a 26-year-old naval officer. Elizabeth became queen when her father died in 1952. At her coronation, Philip swore to be his wife’s “liege man of life and limb” and settled into a life of supporting the monarch.

Philip retired from public life in 2017. At the time, he had conducted more than 22,000 public engagements on his own, given 5,496 speeches and made 637 solo trips abroad, in addition to countless more appearances by the queen’s side.

“He was a hero to me because he was the man I could look up to,” Nurtr Omar, a 20-year-old who was born in Somalia and now lives in Britain, said outside Buckingham Palace. “He showed me what I can achieve with my life, whether you are royal or not. You need to make hard work to achieve what you want to.”

The floral tributes grew throughout the day, even after the Royal Family on Friday asked people not to visit royal residences to pay their respects due to public health concerns. Instead of flowers, the family asked people to consider making donations to charity.

But for Windsor resident Billy Dohil, the day was about history. He took his children to the castle so they could be part of it. “As they grow up, we’ll remember this,” Dohil, 39, said. “We’ll remember the royal family and (it) will be part of their life. So we wanted to come here to pay our respects. My oldest son — five years old — wanted to bring some flowers and just put it down himself.’’

Associated Press Writers James Brooks and Tom Rayner contributed.

UK reflects on 'grief and loss,' a year from first lockdown

March 23, 2021

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. has a lot to reflect on. A year to the day since Prime Minister Boris Johnson first put the country under lockdown to slow the fast-spreading coronavirus, a national day of reflection has been organized by the end-of-life charity Marie Curie to remember the people who died after contracting COVID-19.

The U.K. has registered more than 126,000 virus-related deaths, the highest pandemic death toll in Europe and one of the highest in the world as a proportion of population. “As we look forward to a brighter future together, today we pause to reflect on the grief and loss that continues to be felt by so many people and families, and pay tribute to the immeasurable service of those who have supported us all over the last year," Queen Elizabeth II said in a note accompanying a bouquet of flowers sent to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in the City of London, where her husband, Prince Philip, was recently treated for a heart condition.

The country observed a minute’s silence at noon to remember those who have died after contracting the virus. Later, people are being encouraged to stand on their doorsteps at 8 p.m. with phones, candles and flashlights to signify a “beacon of remembrance.”

London’s skyline will turn yellow when landmarks including the London Eye, Trafalgar Square and Wembley Stadium light up at nightfall. Other notable buildings that will be illuminated include Cardiff Castle and Belfast City Hall. Churches and cathedrals plan to toll bells, light thousands of candles and offer prayers.

“Today, the anniversary of the first lockdown, is an opportunity to reflect on the past year — one of the most difficult in our country’s history," Johnson said. “We should also remember the great spirit shown by our nation over this past year."

Few foresaw the scale of death and grief to come when Johnson, in a prime-time televised address on March 23, 2020, issued a “very simple instruction” for the British people to stay at home. Johnson, who within days of issuing the stay-at-home order tested positive for the virus and eventually ended up in intensive care at a London hospital, has faced criticism for delaying the first lockdown. Italy had been the first European country to go into lockdown earlier in March 2020, followed by most of the rest of the continent.

The delay, many argue, led to the U.K. recording the most deaths in Europe during the first wave of the pandemic, despite the valiant efforts of people working in the National Health Service, which has undoubtedly endured its most difficult period since its creation in the aftermath of World War II.

Further delays in reimposing nationwide lockdowns following the easing of restrictions over the summer and fall have similarly been blamed for exacerbating Britain's high coronavirus death toll, especially this year, when a new, more contagious variant of the virus first identified in southeast England became the dominant strain.

Calls are growing, particularly among bereaved families, for the government to back a public enquiry into its handling of the pandemic. Johnson has said one will come but that it would be a distraction now.

Beyond the devastating death toll, the pandemic has seriously impacted every aspect of day-to-day life, most evident in the boarded-up shops and the eerily quiet city centers. Children have spent many months cooped up at home with their often-agitated parents and siblings also struggling to deal with the realities of life under lockdown.

The pandemic has also battered the British economy, which suffered its deepest recession in more than 300 years. Pubs, restaurants, theaters, hair salons and all stores selling nonessential items such as books and footwear have spent much of the past year closed.

Despite recovering some of its lost output as firms pushed through their online capabilities, the economy remains around 10% smaller than it was just over a year ago. There are fears that many businesses, particularly those serving the public, will not be able to survive for long once the government starts withdrawing its unprecedented financial support.

There is some hope that the rapid rollout of coronavirus vaccines — more than half the adult population has already had one of the two doses they need — will herald a period of lockdown easing in the weeks to come. Johnson insists his government's plan to lift restrictions in England will be guided by “data, not dates,” but that life could be very much more normal by the height of summer. The other nations of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — have outlined similar plans.

But confirmed cases are again increasing in much of Europe, and Johnson said Britain would also likely face a new wave of the pandemic. “Previous experience has taught us that when a wave hits our friends, it washes up on our shores as well," he said.

UK faces vaccine shortfall, could delay shots for under 50s

March 18, 2021

LONDON (AP) — Britain is facing a shortfall in COVID-19 vaccine supplies that may delay the start of shots for people under 50 after deliveries from two suppliers were curtailed due to production and testing issues.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the delays as the inevitable consequence of a complicated program. But he acknowledged that in the short term, the country would receive fewer vaccines than planned a week ago, in part because of a shortfall from India's Serum Institute.

“That is because of a delay in a shipment from the Serum Institute, who are doing a Herculean job in producing vaccines in such large quantities, and because of a batch that we currently have in the U.K. that needs to be retested as part of our vigorous safety program,"' he told reporters Thursday at a Downing Street news conference.

Johnson’s comments came a day after the National Health Service told doctors that vaccine supplies would be “significantly constrained” beginning March 29. As a result, people under 50 shouldn’t be inoculated for the time being, unless they have underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk from COVID-19, the NHS said in a letter to public health officials.

The news damped the hopes of the U.K. beginning to vaccinate younger people next month. This next phase of the vaccination program is likely be pushed back until May, said Dr. Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

“It was disappointing news when we heard yesterday that the supplies weren’t going to be available during April,” he told the BBC. “It’s a massively successful program overall, and this is a bit of a setback.”

Despite the supply constraints, the government still expects to meet its target of delivering a first vaccine dose to everyone over 50 by mid-April and to all adults by July 31, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said. He also said no vaccination appointments would be canceled and everyone who has had a first shot will get their second shot on schedule.

Britain is using vaccines developed by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and Anglo-Swedish rival AstraZeneca, with vaccine deliveries from Moderna expected to start soon. More than 25 million people across the U.K. — almost 38% of its population — have received at least one dose of vaccine so far.

The nation’s medicines regulator on Thursday recommended that people continue to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, despite concerns about blood clots raised in some European countries. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said a “rigorous review” of all the data available found no evidence that the AstraZeneca vaccine caused clots in veins.

Another review of five U.K. cases involving a rare type of clot in the brain is under way. This type of clot, which can occur naturally, has been reported in fewer than 1 in every million people vaccinated and no causal link to the vaccine has been established, the MHRA said.

“The benefits of the vaccines against COVID-19 continue to outweigh any risks and that the public should continue to get their vaccine when invited to do so,” the agency said. Underlining the vaccine's safety, Johnson told reporters that he would receive the AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday. The prime minister had a serious case of COVID-19 last spring.

“Let's get the jab done!'' he said. COVID-19 has killed some 126,000 people in Britain, the highest toll in Europe. The government had previously said the Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, would supply Britain with 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine this month. But the Serum Institute said Thursday that there were no “stipulated timelines” for delivery of the vaccine.

The company said 5 million doses have already been delivered “and we will try to supply more later, based on the current situation and the requirement for the government immunization program in India.”

India’s foreign ministry says vaccine exports would be calibrated to domestic production, “as well as requirements of our national vaccine program.” COVID-19 is linked to more than 159,000 deaths in India, the world’s fourth-highest death toll.

Dr. Simon Clarke, associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said the disruption in U.K. vaccine supplies is more than just a “bump in the road.” It could have knock-on effects that last for months, including potential delays in lifting COVID-19 restrictions, he said.

Johnson has announced plans to slowly lift a national lockdown in England, though some measures are expected to remain in place until late June. Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have also begun to ease restrictions. With the lockdown expected to last past Easter, Britons have been looking at summer holidays as a way to make up for months of living under heavy restrictions.

“By pushing back the under-50s first doses, their second doses are also being pushed back,” Clarke said. “If full vaccination becomes required for holidays abroad or even more mundane things like going to the cinema, millions of younger people may end up being excluded from participating for the whole summer.”

Aniruddha Ghosal in New Delhi and Pan Pylas in London contributed.

Pandemic takes a toll on exhausted UK funeral directors

February 12, 2021

LONDON (AP) — Funeral director Hasina Zaman recently helped a family say goodbye to a young man in his 30s who had died from COVID-19, on the same day she was planning a service for a husband and wife, both also lost to the virus.

Since the pandemic struck, Zaman's phone has rarely stopped ringing, with bereaved people seeking help that she is not always able to provide. “Every week I think I don’t have what it takes,” said Zaman, whose company Compassionate Funerals serves a multicultural, multi-faith community in east London. The small firm normally arranges about five funerals a week, but COVID-19 has driven the number as high as 20.

“We just do it,” Zaman said. “Literally just hands-on approach and just go for it and do it. And it’s not sustainable. It’s definitely not sustainable, because it’s not healthy.” Funeral home staff are under pressure in many places, but the burden is especially intense in Britain, where more than 115,000 people with the virus have died, one of the highest per capita death tolls in the world. Undertakers, embalmers and others who deal with death for a living often regard the pressure on them as less important than the pain felt by bereaved families. But many are exhausted by the sheer amount of mortality they have faced, and the pandemic is increasing awareness that their own mental health also deserves tending to.

Funeral directors across the country describe a heavy burden from more services, tougher hygiene measures and fewer staff because of illness and self-isolation requirements. Emma Symons, an embalmer at Heritage & Sons Funeral Directors, northwest of London, says her workload has tripled.

“Some days it is relentless and is really difficult, particularly if we have younger people who’ve died,” she said. “Sometimes it really does get a bit too much.” Heritage & Sons' parent company says its group of funeral homes across southeast England is arranging 30% to 50% more funerals than in a typical year. Ben Blunt, a senior funeral director at Heritage & Sons, says this winter’s surge — which saw Britain record more than 30,000 coronavirus deaths in January alone, though cases and deaths are now falling — has been even worse than the peak last spring.

“In the first lockdown, we kind of didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “But having had the experience first time around and now going through it for a second time, there is that sort of slight dread, that we almost know what’s on the horizon.”

Alison Crake was better prepared for the pandemic than most. Before anyone had ever heard of COVID-19, she wrote a guide about how to plan for a pandemic for Britain’s National Association of Funeral Directors. Crake anticipated some of the stresses a pandemic could bring, including staff absences, a shortage of mortuary space and the need to procure extra protective equipment.

But she says that if anyone had described the scale of death and disruption to come, “I probably would have gasped at the thought of it.” Crake, who runs her family's funeral firm in northeast England, says the profession has been shaken by shuttered places of worship, strict limits on attendance at funerals and other restrictions to slow the spread of the virus which mean funeral staff can’t always give grieving families the comfort they crave.

Speaking sensitively to a bereaved family over Zoom is a new and delicate skill that funeral directors have had to learn. Blunt says it’s painful not to be able to do something as simple as shake a client’s hand.

“We’re professionals,” he said. “But we’re human beings as well.” Still, Crake says funeral staff, who often regard their profession as a calling, can be reluctant to seek help — though some in the industry are trying to change that. The guide she wrote was updated in October with a greater emphasis on providing emotional support for employees. Those who are struggling can call Our Frontline, a service set up during the pandemic, partially funded by Prince William and his wife Catherine's Royal Foundation, that offers mental health support around the clock to key workers. Funeral staff have been included in that category, alongside medics and emergency services personnel.

“We understand that this is the profession that we’ve chosen,” Crake said. “And for many of us, we see it as vocational. We consider ourselves to be part of our community and our community is part of us. But equally, there is a need to get that balance to make sure that this prolonged exposure to trauma doesn’t result in compassion fatigue.”

Conservative lawmaker John Hayes, who heads a parliamentary group on funerals and bereavement, recently paid tribute to the “quiet dignity” of funeral workers during the pandemic, saying their essential work “often goes unnoticed by those in the corridors of power.”

Zaman is anguished at the restrictions on travel and assembly that mean families often can’t grieve together. One recent weekday, mourners stood in the rain outside her parlor, taking turns to enter for socially distanced prayers over the coffin of a young man who had died far from his homeland of Gambia. A eulogy was delivered on the sidewalk over the rumble of cars and buses.

But she is proud of how the profession has adapted since the first surge of the outbreak. Livestreaming allows friends and family to watch funerals from afar. Thanks to training and protective equipment, she can let Muslim clients wash and shroud their loved ones’ bodies before burial, in line with Islamic practice.

Zaman says when families can have that connection and catharsis, “you feel a sense of achievement” that makes the stress worthwhile. “I am exhausted,” she said. “For sure. But I look after myself. ... I recover. I’ve got 10 hours to recover after work and during the nighttime, and then I come back here and carry on.”

Kearney reported from Aylesbury and Bletchley, England.

UK PM Johnson faces criticism over Scotland trip in lockdown

January 28, 2021

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced accusations Thursday that he is not abiding by the country's lockdown rules as he visited Scotland to laud the rapid rollout of coronavirus vaccines across the United Kingdom.

With a raft of polling showing increased support for Scottish independence from the U.K., Johnson's visit to promote the benefits of the union stands to be overshadowed by the lockdown dispute. Although Scotland has its own government in Edinburgh that has an array powers from public health through to education, it remains part of the U.K. under which London still has huge influence.

“Mutual co-operation across the U.K. throughout this pandemic is exactly what the people of Scotland expect and it is what I have been focused on,” Johnson said. The U.K. has endured Europe's deadliest coronavirus outbreak with more than 102,000 virus-linked deaths but it has been among the world's leaders in rolling out a virus vaccination program.

During his trip, Johnson visited a laboratory at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, where coronavirus tests are processed, and met troops from the British Army who were setting up a vaccination center in the city, bumping elbows to greet some of the soldiers.

Johnson is arguing that Scotland is benefiting directly from his government’s approach to getting vaccine shots out quickly. Critics say the Conservative prime minister is politicking at a time when the U.K. is in a strict lockdown as a result of a huge resurgence of the virus that Johnson has largely blamed on a new variant first identified around London and southeast England.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has described Johnson's visit as “not essential,” in the same way that a visit by herself to another part of Scotland would not be deemed essential under current lockdown rules.

Sturgeon, whose Scottish National Party wants to hold another referendum on Scotland's independence, is way ahead in polls ahead of a general election in May, with some showing support at over 50%. Should the SNP win a clear majority, Sturgeon has said she will look to hold another vote on Scotland's future. Johnson, who under the law would have to back a referendum to make it legal, has indicated that he won't do so, arguing that as recently as 2014 Scotland voted to stay part of the U.K. by a clear majority.

Sturgeon argues the situation has changed dramatically since then because Britain has left the European Union, even though voters in Scotland overwhelmingly backed remaining part of the bloc. That break, which Johnson campaigned for, became a harsh business reality on Jan. 1.

In Scotland, Sturgeon's government has been widely seen as handling the pandemic well. At key moments, she is seen as having taken a more cautious approach than Johnson. Ahead of the visit, Michael Gove, a close ally of Johnson's, insisted the prime minister's visit was “absolutely essential” because Johnson has to ensure that the country's vaccine rollout is working properly.

“It’s critically important that the Scottish government and the U.K. government are working together to do everything we can to support the rollout and see what we can do to improve it," he told BBC radio.

Even Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, came to Johnson's support. “I’m with the prime minister on this one," he said on radio station LBC. “It’s important that he travels to see what is going on, on the ground.”

'Take every shift as it comes': No respite for UK hospitals

January 28, 2021

LONDON (AP) — When the U.K. surpassed 100,000 coronavirus dead this week, it was much more than just a number to Justin Fleming. Lying in a hospital bed with COVID-19, he knew how easily he could have become one of them, were it not for the medics and other staff who worked to save his life.

“I thought I might not see my partner again, my mum — be a dead friend, be just a stat,” said 47-year-old Fleming, who was rushed to King’s College Hospital in mid-January struggling for breath. His condition improved after two weeks of receiving oxygen on an acute care ward.

The scale of Britain’s coronavirus outbreak can seem overwhelming, with tens of thousands of new infections and more than 1,000 deaths added each day. But on hospitals' COVID-19 wards, the pandemic feels both epic and intimate, as staff fight the virus one patient at a time, and with no end in sight.

Fleming says he was amazed by the diversity of the “incredible” staff — including recently qualified medics, a nurse newly arrived from the Philippines and staff drafted from dental wards and brain injury teams — who eased his isolation and saved him from joining the roster of the dead.

“Because you have to be isolated (with COVID-19), you feel like you’ve just vanished,” he said. “It’s almost like you can become a non-person within a week." Fleming is one of more than 37,000 coronavirus patients being treated in Britain’s hospitals, almost double the number of the spring surge. King’s College Hospital, which sits in a diverse, densely populated area of south London, had almost 800 COVID-19 patients earlier this winter. A new national lockdown has seen the number fall to a still-challenging 630.

Critical care consultant Dr. Jenny Townsend works on a 16-bed intensive care ward that currently has 30 patients, with two beds squeezed into each bay designed for one. In normal times, one intensive care nurse looks after one patient. The ratio is now as high as one to four.

“We all feel very stretched and everyone’s mucking in to help each other with each of the roles that is required,” Townsend said. “We’re doing the best we can, and we’re doing it in very difficult circumstances. We try and deliver as close to what we do normally, but occasionally because of the number of patients, we have to prioritize what we can and can’t do," she said.

That is especially difficult because coronavirus care is labor-intensive. It takes a village of people and skills to treat each critically ill patient. One recent day on the ward, Townsend oversaw a tracheostomy, inserting a small tube into a patient’s windpipe to help him breathe without a ventilator — a small step toward possible recovery. Down the hall, family liaison officer Berenice Page held a video call to relatives from a patient’s bedside. More than half a dozen staff worked to “prone” another patient, carefully flipping them onto their stomach to help them breathe more easily.

Like others, this hospital had to adapt fast when COVID-19 first struck in early 2020, finding room for more patients and redeploying medical staff to work in unaccustomed roles. Wards were converted, staff were drafted in from other departments to the new COVID wards and expanded intensive care units.

Then, after a summer respite when cases plummeted, the hospital had to do it all over again when the virus came roaring back in the fall. Many staff find the struggle harder the second time around. “In the first wave, people’s energy levels were better because we were dealing with the unknown and we learned as we went along,” said Felicia Kwaku, the hospital’s associate director of nursing. “In this second wave it’s worse, because the patients are much sicker, the numbers are higher, the wave feels longer.”

Coronavirus patient Fleming, having seen the pandemic up close, says Britain’s overburdened medics “need credit now — and help and support.” “This is a significant historical moment and they protected the country," he said.

While the number of patients being admitted to London hospitals with COVID-19 is gradually diminishing, pressure on medics will only ease slowly because of the time lag between infections, hospitalizations and — for the sickest patients — transfers to intensive care.

That means ongoing challenges for staff like family liaison officer Page. Each day she phones patients’ relatives to update them on their condition, then takes a tablet computer around the ward, so that family members, barred from visiting, can at least see their unconscious loved ones.

“I find it a real privilege to be to be able to talk to them,” said Page, whose usual job is as a resuscitation coordinator. “You get a glimpse of the patient’s life when you’re doing the video calls, and you see (the relatives) sitting in their homes and some of them have got young children. And, yes, I do feel their despair. But I also I also know what a difference it makes," she said.

“We’re often talking to people whose relatives are going to die. It’s a very difficult situation. … I think that when they speak to us. I can say that they find some there’s some peace for them,” she added.

Kwaku said the pace of patients being admitted remains “relentless,” and implored lockdown-weary Britons to keep following social distancing rules. She said hospital workers take heart from the U.K.’s rapid rollout of coronavirus vaccines. More than 7 million people have received the first of two doses.

Kwaku says staff also get a boost from the patients who recover and go home, and take some comfort from those they offer “a good death,” free from struggle and fear. “You take every shift as it comes, you take every day as it comes,” she said. “You may fall down, and you get yourself up. You may feel low, you pick yourself up. You may have a cry. … But we’re here to care for patients and care for each other.”

UK chief scientist says new virus variant may be more deadly

January 22, 2021

LONDON (AP) — There is some evidence that a new coronavirus variant first identified in southeast England carries a higher risk of death than the original strain, the British government’s chief scientific adviser said Friday -- though he stressed that the data is uncertain.

Patrick Vallance told a news conference that “there is evidence that there is an increased risk for those who have the new variant.” He said that for a man in his 60s with the original version of the virus, “the average risk is that for 1,000 people who got infected, roughly 10 would be expected to unfortunately die.”

“With the new variant, for 1,000 people infected, roughly 13 or 14 people might be expected to die,” he said. But Vallance stressed that “the evidence is not yet strong" and more research is needed. In contrast to that uncertainty, he said, there is growing confidence that the variant is more easily passed on than the original coronavirus strain. He said it appears to be between 30% and 70% more transmissible.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical lead on COVID-19, said studies were underway to look at the transmission and severity of new virus variants. She said so far “they haven’t seen an increase in severity” but that more transmission could lead to “an overburdened health care system” and thus more deaths.

The evidence for the new variant being more deadly is i n a paper prepared by a group of scientists that advises the government on new respiratory viruses, based on several studies. The British scientists said that although initial analyses suggested that the strain, first identified in September, did not cause more severe disease, several more recent ones suggest it might. However, the numbers of deaths are relatively small, and case fatality rates are affected by many things including the care patients get and their age and health beyond having COVID-19.

The British scientists stress that the information so far has major limitations, and that they do not know how representative the cases included in the analyses are of what’s happening throughout the country or elsewhere.

One analysis did not find an increased risk of death among people admitted to a hospital with the new strain. In another, the odds of being admitted to a hospital with the new strain compared to the previously dominant one were no different.

There is a lag in reporting hospitalizations after infection, and a further lag from infection to death, so officials expect to learn more in several weeks. Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said “there is quite a bit of difference in the estimated increased risk of death between the different analyses, though most, but not all, show increased risk of death,” he said.

Ian Jones, professor of Virology at the University of Reading, said “the data is limited and the conclusions preliminary. However, an increased case fatality rate is certainly possible with a virus that has upped its game in transmission.”

British officials say they are confident that the vaccines that have been authorized for use against COVID-19 will be effective against the new strain identified in the country. But Vallance said scientists are concerned that variants identified in Brazil and South Africa could be more resistant to vaccines, adding that more research needs to be done.

Concerns about newly identified variants have triggered a spate of new travel restrictions around the world. Many countries have closed their borders to travelers from Britain, and the U.K. has halted flights from Brazil and South Africa.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there could be further restrictions. “We may need to go further to protect our borders," he said. Britain has recorded 95,981 deaths among people who tested positive for the coronavirus, the highest confirmed total in Europe.

The U.K. is currently in a lockdown in an attempt to slow the latest surge of the coronavirus outbreak. Pubs, restaurants, entertainment venues and many shops are closed, and people are required to stay largely at home.

The number of new infections has begun to fall, but deaths remain agonizingly high, averaging more than 1,000 a day, and the number of hospitalized patients is 80% higher than at the first peak of the pandemic in the spring.

Johnson, who has often been accused of giving overly optimistic predictions about relaxing coronavirus restrictions, sounded gloomy. “We will have to live with coronavirus in one way or another for a long while to come," he said, adding that "it’s an open question” when measures could be eased.

“At this stage you’ve got to be very, very cautious indeed," he said. Vallance agreed, “I don’t think this virus is going anywhere," he said. “It’s going to be around, probably, forever.”

AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione and Medical Writer Maria Cheng contributed to this story.