Turkey confirms 32 deaths, 1,141 new COVID-19 cases

May 24, 2020

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's health minister on Sunday announced 32 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the death to in the country to 4,340. Fahrettin Koca also tweeted there were 1,141 new infections confirmed in the past 24 hours. The total number of infections has reached 156,827.

Turkey ranks ninth in a global tally by Johns Hopkins University but experts believe the number of infections could be much higher than reported.More than 118,000 people have recovered, according to the health ministry statistics.

The Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, traditionally a time of gathering, was marked by a nationwide lockdown, the first of its kind in Turkey to combat the coronavirus. Previous weekend and holiday lockdowns affected a maximum of 31 out of 81 provinces.

Senior citizens above 65 were allowed out for a few hours for a third Sunday. People under 20 and above 65 have been under full lockdown, but days and times outside have been allotted according to age groups as part of easing efforts.

Europeans soak up the sun but virus travel rules a mishmash

May 24, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — Europeans soaked up the sun where they could, taking advantage of the first holiday weekend since coronavirus restrictions were eased, while governments grappled with how and when to safely let in foreign travelers to salvage the vital summer tourist season.

Yet even as social distancing rules spread families and friends out Sunday across beaches and parks, the virus remained a constant threat. Europe has seen over 169,000 dead, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Across the continent, a mishmash of travel restrictions appears to be on the horizon, often depending on where travelers live and what passports they carry. Germany, France and other European countries aim to open their borders for European travel in mid-June, but it isn’t clear when intercontinental travel will resume.

Spain, one of the worst-hit countries in the pandemic and also one of the world’s top destinations for international travelers, says it won’t reopen for foreign tourists until July. To boost the economy, the country’s leader has encouraged Spaniards to “start planning their vacations” for late June inside Spain.

“Come July, we will allow the arrival of foreign tourists to Spain under safe conditions,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said. “We will guarantee that tourists aren't at risk and that they don’t represent a risk (to Spain).”

For now, travel between Spain’s provinces isn’t allowed and many other restrictions remain — although on Monday, residents in worst-hit Madrid and Barcelona will be able to join the rest of the country in dining outdoors at bars and restaurants, which can offer only 50% of their usual tables.

Also Monday, local sunbathers and swimmers will be permitted in some of Spain’s coastal provinces. The number of beach-goers will be limited and umbrellas must be at least four meters (13 feet) apart.

In Germany, domestic tourists will be allowed to return Monday to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state in the northeast — home to the country’s Baltic Sea coast — and to hotels in Berlin, the popular capital.

But tourism campaigns will require a new approach. “We don’t think people want closely packed big-city bustle at the moment,” Burkhard Kieker, the chief of visitBerlin, told RBB Inforadio. His agency has launched a campaign showing “how much green space and how much water there is” in Berlin.

In Paris, where all city parks remain closed, residents soaked up the sun along the embankments of the Seine River and lounged on ledges outside the Tuileries Gardens. In some spots, people sat safely spaced apart. Elsewhere, groups of maskless teens crowded together, shrugging off social distancing rules.

Beginning Monday, France is relaxing its border restrictions, allowing in migrant workers and family visitors from other European countries. But is calling for a voluntary 14-day quarantine for people arriving from Britain and Spain, because those countries imposed a similar requirement on the French.

Italy, which plans to open regional and international borders on June 3 in a bid to boost tourism, is only now allowing residents back to beaches in their own regions — with restrictions. In the northwestern Liguria region, people were allowed a dip in the sea and a walk along the shore, but no sunbathing. In Savona, a dozen people were fined for violating sunbathing bans. Rimini, on Italy’s east coast, attracted beach-goers beginning at dawn, and many sat in widely spaced groups. Still, authorities had to work at enforcing distancing on a popular beach in Palermo.

"We can't forget that the virus exists and is circulating,” deputy health minister Pierpaolo Sileri told Sky TG24. “Even if the numbers of new cases are low, we must respect the rules.” For the first time in months, well-spaced faithful gathered in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square for the traditional Sunday papal blessing. About 2,000 Muslims gathered for for Eid al-Fitr prayers at a sports complex in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, carefully spaced a meter (about three feet) apart and wearing masks.

Beachside communities along England’s coast urged Londoners and others to stay away after rules were eased to allow people to drive any distance for exercise or recreation. The southern coastal city of Brighton put it: “Wish you were here — but not just yet.” Wales kept up its “Later” tourism campaign, reminding people that its hotels, restaurants and tourist sites were still closed.

Associated Press writers from around Europe contributed to this report.

UK leader Johnson stands by aide over 250-mile lockdown trip

May 24, 2020

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday he wouldn't fire his chief aide for allegedly violating the national lockdown rules that he helped to create by driving the length of England to his parents' house while he was infected with the coronavirus.

Defying a growing clamor from public and politicians, Johnson said Dominic Cummings had acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity” when he drove 250 miles (400 kilometers) from London to Durham, in northeast England, with his wife and son at the end of March.

Britain's lockdown, which began March 23, stipulated that people should remain at their primary residence, leaving only for essential local errands and exercise. Anyone with coronavirus symptoms was told to completely isolate themselves.

Cummings says he traveled to be near extended family because his wife was showing COVID-19 symptoms, he correctly thought he was also infected and he wanted to ensure that his 4-year-old son was looked after.

Johnson told a news conference that Cummings had "followed the instincts of every father and every parent.” He said Cummings, his wife and son followed the rules by self-isolating for 14 days once they reached Durham.

But critics of the government expressed outrage that Cummings had broken strict rules that for two months have prevented Britons from visiting elderly relatives, comforting dying friends or even attending the funerals of loved ones. The opposition Labour Party has called for an official investigation.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said Johnson's defense of Cummings was “an insult to sacrifices made by the British people.” “The prime minister’s actions have undermined confidence in his own public health message at this crucial time," he said .

Former Labour lawmaker Helen Goodman, whose father died in a nursing home during the outbreak, said Cummings’ behavior was “repellent.” “What was the point of the sacrifice that we all made? What was the point of the miserable, lonely death that my father had?” she told the BBC.

Speaking inside the prime minister's 10 Downing St. residence, Johnson said “I can totally get why people might feel so confused and ... so offended by the idea that it was one thing for the people here and one thing for others."

But he said Cumming's “particular childcare needs” left him “no alternative” but to make the 250-mile trip. Government ministers have denied a claim that Cummings was spotted again in Durham on April 19, after he had recovered and returned to work in London. But they have not confirmed or denied report that Cummings visited a scenic area 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Durham on April 12.

Cummings is a key but contentious figure in Johnson’s administration. A self-styled political disrupter who disdains the media and civil service, he was one of the architects of the successful campaign to take Britain out of the European Union, and orchestrated the Conservatives’ decisive election victory in December.

The coronavirus cut a swath through the top ranks of Britain’s government in March and April, infecting people including Cummings, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Johnson himself, who has said that the medical staff at a London hospital saved his life.

Despite the government's support for Cummings, several lawmakers from Johnson’s Conservative Party joined the opposition in calling for the aide to be sacked. “Dominic Cummings has a track record of believing that the rules don’t apply to him and treating the scrutiny that should come to anyone in a position of authority with contempt,” tweeted Conservative lawmaker Damian Collins. “The government would be better without him.”

Another Tory legislator, Steve Baker, said Cummings must resign for not “abiding by the spirit, at least, of the slogans which he has enforced on the rest of the country.” Johnson’s government is already facing criticism for its response to a pandemic that has hit Britain harder than any other European country. Britain’s official coronavirus death toll stands at 36,793, the second-highest confirmed total in the world after the United States. Statistics that include suspected as well as confirmed virus cases put the toll well over 40,000.

The U.K. is gradually easing its lockdown, allowing more outdoor recreation and letting some shops and businesses reopen. Johnson confirmed Sunday that primary schools can start reopening in June, though many parents and teachers worry that it isn't yet safe to do so.

Johnson said the government was still aiming to have pupils in the first and final years of primary school back in classrooms on June 1, though he acknowledged that “may not be possible for all schools.”

Cummings is one of several senior U.K. officials to be accused of flouting the lockdown rules. Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson stepped down as government scientific adviser earlier this month after a newspaper disclosed that his girlfriend had crossed London to stay with him during the lockdown. In April, Catherine Calderwood resigned as Scotland’s chief medical officer after twice traveling from Edinburgh to her second home.

Spain's far-right holds car protest against virus lockdown

May 23, 2020

(AP) Several thousand followers of Spain’s far-right Vox party gathered Saturday in their cars and on motorbikes in the center of Madrid and other Spanish cities to protest the Spanish government’s handling of the nation’s coronavirus crisis.

The party accuses the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of lying about the impact of the health crisis and of violating Spaniards’ rights by confining people to their homes and closing businesses during the lockdown.

Vox called for protesters to attend the protests in their vehicles and thus skirt the ban on social gatherings in effect under the nation’s two-month long state of emergency designed to reduce contagion risks.

Vox called the protest the “Caravan for Spain and Liberty.” “We will never forget what they have done,” Vox leader Santiago Abascal said from the open-top bus leading the caravan as it inched down a Madrid boulevard.

“Do not doubt that we will make them face justice. They know it and fear our freedom. That is why they try to intimidate us.” Most cars and motorbikes were decked with Spanish flags. There were also small groups of people who participated on foot, with some not respecting the two-meter social distancing rules. Protests were also held in Barcelona, Sevilla and other provincial capitals.

Spain's government says that the confinement measures have been necessary to save the nation's hospitals from collapse and save thousands of lives. Sánchez said that the protesters were exercising their constitutional rights, but that he asked them “to respect the criteria, rules, and decisions that health authorities have made."

“This government will preach for concord, peaceful co-existence, respect and tolerance, and not for hate and rage,” he said. Over 28,000 Spaniards have been confirmed to have died from COVID-19. The government says that all the information it makes public on virus deaths and infections are provided by the regions, some of which are governed by opposition parties. No region has accused the government of relaying incorrect data.

Spain’s left-wing coalition government declared a state of emergency on March 14. The lockdown applied under the state of emergency, which has limited the right to free movement and assembly, has successfully reined in the outbreak.

Abascal and another leading Vox politician both fell ill with the virus after holding a massive party rally in early March. The party apologized for going ahead with the rally but blamed the government for not warning the nation of the danger. Abascal and his colleague recovered.

Vox, which is strongly anti-migrant and anti-women’s rights, won its first seats in Spain’s Parliament in April 2019. It then made huge gains in a repeat election in November and is the third-largest party in the legislature.

“I’m here to ask for the government to resign. We are tired of being kept in prison,” said 47-year-old bank employee Almudena Camara at the Madrid protest. Saturday’s car protest follows a week of small protests in one of Madrid’s wealthiest neighborhoods and other cities that Vox has backed.

With its hospitals now able to handle the smaller load of cases, Spain is slowly moving toward gradually reactivating its economy and recovering social activities. On Monday, Madrid and Barcelona, the two hardest hit areas, will be able to join the rest of the country in reopening 50% of outdoor seating at bars and restaurants and gathering in groups of under 10 people.

Sánchez’s minority government of his Socialists and the left-wing United We Can party is under increasing pressure from opposition parties and some regional leaders to move forward with the rollback to reduce the already huge impact to the economy.

Spanish government spokeswoman María Jesús Montero said Friday that the right to protest “cannot be confused with a right to infect.” “This is a country where people can protest freely, but we would like them to transmit the truth about what is happening in this country, where the right to expression is protected,” Montero said.

Wilson reported from Barcelona.

Virus cases drop to zero in China but surge in Latin America

May 23, 2020

TOKYO (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic continued to drop in much of Asia on Saturday even as the outbreak surged in Latin America, as the world grappled with balancing the urge to restart economies with fears about health risks.

China, where the outbreak began late last year, reported no new confirmed cases for the first time. In South Korea, there were 23 fresh infections, mostly from the densely populated Seoul area where authorities shut down thousands of nightclubs, bars and karaoke rooms to stem transmissions.

The encouraging signs are likely to set off a much awaited thrust to get back to business as governments have been readying social-distancing measures to reopen economies. In Japan, a group representing bar hostesses and other nightlife workers issued guidelines to protect employees as outfits reopen, telling them to wear masks, gargle every 30 minutes and disinfect karaoke microphones after each use.

The Bank of Japan, which recently announced measures to ensure easy lending in the world’s third largest economy, said in a joint statement with the government that both sides “will work together to bring the Japanese economy back again on the post-pandemic solid growth track.”

Japan’s new cases have dwindled lately to double-digit figures each day. Deaths related to the coronavirus are below 800 people. South Korea had been reporting around 500 new cases a day in early March before using aggressive tracing and testing to stabilize its outbreak. More than 200 of the recent infections have been linked to clubgoers in Seoul as the country began easing restrictions.

In the U.S., some regions were opening more quickly than others. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended the state’s stay-at-home order by slightly more than two additional weeks, through June 12, while keeping theaters, gyms and other places of public accommodation closed until at least then.

The Democratic governor also kept her coronavirus emergency declaration through June 19. Both the stay-at-home measure and state of emergency had been set to expire late next Thursday, though Whitmer said extensions were likely.

“While the data shows that we are making progress, we are not out of the woods yet. If we’re going to lower the chance of a second wave and continue to protect our neighbors and loved ones from the spread of this virus, we must continue to do our part by staying safer at home,” said Whitmer, whom President Donald Trump has pushed to reopen the state.

Michigan on Friday reported 5,158 confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 complications, the fourth largest tally of any state. The daily death toll rose by 29 and the number of new confirmed cases in the state increased by 403, to nearly 54,000 since the pandemic started.

Nevada is preparing to reopen its shuttered casinos, including glitzy ones in Las Vegas. Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, has set a tentative June 4 date, as Nevada continues to see decreasing cases of the coronavirus and hospitalizations of COVID-19. Some restrictions began to be lifted nearly two weeks ago.

Nevada’s gambling regulators plan to meet Tuesday and will consider reopening plans submitted from casinos, which need to be approved at least seven days before restarting. By country, the U.S. has been the hardest hit, with more than 96,000 deaths among 1.6 million confirmed cases.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said there have been 75 cases of COVID-19 in the U.N.’s 13 far-flung peacekeeping missions, which have a total of 110,000 troops, police and personnel. U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters that preventive measures taken early on in the crisis appear to have prevented the spread of the virus, with the exception of conflict-torn Mali where 58 cases were reported. He said there have been no deaths and none of the cases was serious.

Latin America’s two largest nations — Mexico and Brazil — reported record numbers of infections and deaths almost daily this week, fueling criticism of their presidents, who have slow-walked shutdowns in an attempt to limit economic damage.

Brazil has reported more than 330,000 confirmed cases, surpassing Russia to become the nation with the second-highest number of infections, behind only the U.S., according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Brazil also has recorded more than 21,000 deaths, though experts believe the numbers are higher.

The virus “does not forgive,” Uber driver Bruno Almeida de Mello said at the burial of his grandmother Vandelma Rosa, 66, in Rio de Janeiro. “It does not choose race or if you are rich or poor, black or white. It’s a cruel disease.”

De Mello said his grandmother’s death certificate reads “suspected of COVID-19,” but the hospital didn’t have the tests necessary to confirm it. That means her death was not counted in the official toll.

Experts said the surging deaths across Latin America showed the limits of government action in a region where millions have informal jobs and many police forces are weak or corrupt and unable to enforce restrictions. Infections also rose and intensive-care units were swamped in Peru, Chile and Ecuador, countries lauded for imposing early and aggressive business shutdowns and quarantines.

Colombia’s Ministry of Health also reported its biggest daily increases Friday, with 801 new confirmed infections and 30 deaths. Nearly 20,000 people have been diagnosed with the virus in a country that has been locked down for nearly two months.

Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.

Mysterious glowing coral reefs are fighting to recover

Southampton UK (SPX)
May 22, 2020

A new study by the University of Southampton has revealed why some corals exhibit a dazzling colorful display, instead of turning white, when they suffer 'coral bleaching' - a condition which can devastate reefs and is caused by ocean warming. The scientists behind the research think this phenomenon is a sign that corals are fighting to survive.

Many coral animals live in a fragile, mutually beneficial relationship, a 'symbiosis' with tiny algae embedded in their cells. The algae gain shelter, carbon dioxide and nutrients, while the corals receive photosynthetic products to fulfill their energy needs. If temperatures rise just 1?C above the usual summer maximum, this symbiosis breaks down; the algae are lost, the coral's white limestone skeleton shines through its transparent tissue and a damaging process known as 'coral bleaching' occurs.

This condition can be fatal to the coral. Once its live tissue is gone, the skeleton is exposed to the eroding forces of the environment. Within a few years, an entire coral reef can break down and much of the biodiversity that depends on its complex structure is lost - a scenario which currently threatens the future of reefs around the world.

However, some bleaching corals undergo an, until now, mysterious transformation - emitting a range of different bright neon colors. Why this happens has now been explained by a team of scientists from the University of Southampton's Coral Reef Laboratory, who have published their detailed insights in the journal Current Biology.

The researchers conducted a series of controlled laboratory experiments at the coral aquarium facility of the University of Southampton. They found that during colorful bleaching events, corals produce what is effectively a sunscreen layer of their own, showing itself as a colorful display. Furthermore, it's thought this process encourages the coral symbionts to return.

Professor Jorg Wiedenmann, head of the University of Southampton's Coral Reef Laboratory explains: "Our research shows colorful bleaching involves a self-regulating mechanism, a so-called optical feedback loop, which involves both partners of the symbiosis. In healthy corals, much of the sunlight is taken up by the photosynthetic pigments of the algal symbionts. When corals lose their symbionts, the excess light travels back and forth inside the animal tissue -reflected by the white coral skeleton. This increased internal light level is very stressful for the symbionts and may delay or even prevent their return after conditions return to normal.

"However, if the coral cells can still carry out at least some of their normal functions, despite the environmental stress that caused bleaching, the increased internal light levels will boost the production of colorful, photoprotective pigments. The resulting sunscreen layer will subsequently promote the return of the symbionts. As the recovering algal population starts taking up the light for their photosynthesis again, the light levels inside the coral will drop and the coral cells will lower the production of the colorful pigments to their normal level."

The researchers believe corals which undergo this process are likely to have experienced episodes of mild or brief ocean-warming or disturbances in their nutrient environment - rather than extreme events.

Dr. Cecilia D'Angelo, Lecturer of Molecular Coral Biology at Southampton, comments: "Bleaching is not always a death sentence for corals, the coral animal can still be alive. If the stress event is mild enough, corals can re-establish the symbiosis with their algal partner. Unfortunately, recent episodes of global bleaching caused by unusually warm water have resulted in high coral mortality, leaving the world's coral reefs struggling for survival."

Dr. Elena Bollati, Researcher at the National University Singapore, who studied this subject during her PhD training at the University of Southampton, adds: "We reconstructed the temperature history of known colorful bleaching events around the globe using satellite imagery. These data are in excellent agreement with the conclusions of our controlled laboratory experiments, suggesting that colorful bleaching occurs in association with brief or mild episodes of heat stress."

The scientists are encouraged by recent reports suggesting colorful bleaching has occurred in some areas of the Great Barrier Reef during the most recent mass bleaching there in March-April 2020. They think this raises the hope that at least some patches of the world's largest reef system may have better recovery prospects than others, but emphasize that only a significant reduction of greenhouse gases at a global scale and sustained improvement in water quality at a regional level can save coral reefs beyond the 21st century.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Mysterious_glowing_coral_reefs_are_fighting_to_recover_999.html.

Britain's Brexit bill passes final hurdle in Parliament

January 23, 2020

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Brexit bill passed its final hurdle in Parliament on Wednesday after the House of Lords abandoned attempts to amend it, leaving the U.K. on course to leave the European Union next week.

The bill was approved by Parliament's upper chamber after the House of Commons overturned changes to the government’s flagship Brexit bill made a day earlier by the unelected House of Lords. The bill will become law when it receives royal assent from Queen Elizabeth II, a formality that could come as soon as Thursday.

Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union on Jan. 31, more than three and a half years after voters opted for Brexit in a June 2016 referendum, and after many rounds of political wrangling. "Ät times it felt like we would never cross the Brexit finish line, but we've done it," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

The Lords voted Tuesday to demand that post-Brexit Britain continues to let unaccompanied migrant children in EU countries join relatives living in the U.K. The promise was made in 2018 by former British Prime Minister Theresa May, but it was removed from the Brexit legislation after Johnson’s Conservatives won a big parliamentary majority in an election last month.

Johnson's government says it intends to continue resettling child migrants in Britain after the country leaves the EU but argues that the issue does not belong in the EU withdrawal bill, which sets out the terms of Britain’s departure from the 28-nation bloc.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said an agreement on taking in the children “is ultimately a matter which must be negotiated with the EU, and the government is committed to seeking the best possible outcome in those negotiations."

But Labor lawmaker Yvette Cooper accused Johnson's Conservative government of planning to “betray the commitments that have been made to the most vulnerable children of all." The House of Commons also stripped out changes made by the Lords to bolster the rights of EU citizens in Britain, protect the powers of U.K. courts and ensure a say for Scotland and Wales in post-Brexit legal changes.

The wrangling didn't stop the Brexit bill from becoming law, because the House of Commons can override the unelected Lords. Members of the Lords acknowledged Wednesday that they would have to give way.

“We are at the end of a very long road," said Martin Callanan, a Conservative Brexit minister in the Lords. The EU parliament also must approve the Brexit divorce deal before Jan. 31. A vote by the European Parliament is expected next week.

Despite Johnson’s repeated promise to “get Brexit done” on Jan. 31, the departure will only mark the start of the first stage of the country's EU exit. Britain and the EU will then launch into negotiations on their future ties, racing to strike new relationships for trade, security and a host of other areas by the end of 2020.