Bermuda’s Health Minister Kim Wilson has condemned what she says is “reckless behavior” that led to the island recording 18 new cases of COVID-19.
In an update late Saturday, the Health Minister said that a total of seven cases in from overseas and seven were the results of on-island transmissions with a known contact.
The sources of the other four cases are under investigation.
The new cases bring the island’s total of confirmed cases to 622 — roughly half in December alone. To date, ten people have died on the island.
“We have been made aware of some disturbing social activities over the New Year’s holiday that saw a significant number of individuals at a location who were not engaging in safe practices. Reckless behavior such as this is unfortunate, and we understand that the Bermuda Police Service is investigating the incident.”
“I cannot emphasize enough the importance of making sensible and responsible decisions.”
The fresh cases were among 1,925 test results that came back to health officials since Thursday.
The overseas cases include three residents who flew to Bermuda from London on the December 23 British Airways (BA) flight and tested positive on their day 8 test.
One case arrived on a JetBlue Airways flight from Boston on December 26 and another arrived on a private jet on December 27.
The other two positive cases were residents who arrived on the December 30 BA flight.
The island has 134 active cases, with 131 patients under public health monitoring and three in hospital — but none in critical care.
The new variant of the coronavirus (COVID-19) has been reported in Jamaica among four people arriving from the UK.
Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton confirmed that four passengers who were on the last flight from the UK to Jamaica before the travel ban have tested positive for the new strain.
Speaking at a press conference on January 2, Dr Tufton said the tests have been confirmed after being sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) in Trinidad.
The UK flight with 301 passengers had arrived in Jamaica on December 21, the same day Government announced that it was restricting flights from the UK, due to an outbreak of the new COVID-19 strain there.
Dr Tufton said the health officials have no evidence to suggest that the new strain is in the general population. The government, earlier this week, extended the ban on the UK to January 31.
Buenos Aires, Argentina (CNN) Argentina’s Senate vote is seen as a major victory for abortion rights advocates in the Catholic-majority country.
The Senate voted 38-29 to give millions of women access to legal terminations under a new law supported by President Alberto Fernández. The margin was expected to be much smaller.
Massive crowds of abortion rights activists and anti-abortion campaigners gathered outside the Palace of the Argentine National Congress to await the results, which came in the early hours of the morning after an overnight debate. Supporters of the bill greeted the news with loud cheers — and, in some cases, tears of joy.
Gabriela Giacomelli, whose two sisters had illegal abortions, called the scene “very emotional.”
“We have been fighting for years,” Giacomelli said. “I see young people now, though I hope they never have to abort, but if they do now they can do it safely.”
Abortion rights activists celebrate after the Senate approved a bill to legalize abortion outside Congress in Buenos Aires on Wednesday morning.
Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina and an ambassador for the global women’s rights movement She Decides, said: “Today, Argentina has made an emblematic step forward in defending the rights of women, girls and people with reproductive capacity.”
The law will legalize abortion in all cases up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion in Argentina, South America’s third-most populous country, is currently only permitted when a pregnancy results from rape or endangers the life or health of the woman.
In all other circumstances, abortion is illegal and punishable by up to 15 years in jail.
Abortion advocates hope Argentina’s decision will spur similar movements in Latin America’s other Catholic-majority states.
Belski said that the move sends “a strong message of hope to our entire continent — that we can change course against the criminalization of abortion and against clandestine abortions, which pose serious risks to the health and lives of millions of people. Both the law passed by the Argentine Congress today and the enormous effort of the women’s movement to achieve this are an inspiration to the Americas, and to the world.”
Across Latin America and the Caribbean region, only Cuba, Uruguay, French Guiana and Guyana allow for elective abortions, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. In Mexico City and the Mexican state of Oaxaca, abortions are also available on request, but are severely restricted throughout the rest of Mexico.
By contrast, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Suriname ban abortions in nearly all circumstances. Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama allow for abortion only if it’s to preserve the woman’s health or help save her life.
While abortions remain largely restricted or illegal throughout the region, approximately 5.4 million abortions took place in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2015 and 2019, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute. Its research has found that unintended pregnancy rates are highest in countries that restrict abortion access and lowest in countries where abortion is broadly legal.
An anti-abortion campaigner reacts after the Senate voted in favor of a bill to legalize abortion on Wednesday.
A British judge has rejected the United States' request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges, saying he was likely to kill himself if held under harsh US prison conditions.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected allegations that Assange is being prosecuted for political reasons or would not receive a fair trial in the United States.
But she said his precarious mental health would likely deteriorate further under the conditions of "near total isolation" he would face in US prison.
"I find that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America," the judge said.
She said Assange was "a depressed and sometimes despairing man" who had the "intellect and determination" to circumvent any suicide prevention measures taken by American prison authorities.
The US government said it would appeal the decision.
Assange's lawyers said they would ask for his release from a London prison where he has been held for more than a 18 months at a bail hearing on Wednesday.
Assange, who sat in the dock at London's Central Criminal Court for the ruling, wiped his brow as the decision was announced.
His partner Stella Moris, with whom he has two young sons, wept.
Assange's American lawyer, Barry Pollack, said the legal team was "enormously gratified by the UK court's decision denying extradition".
"The effort by the United States to prosecute Julian Assange and seek his extradition was ill-advised from the start," he said.
"We hope that after consideration of the UK court's ruling, the United States will decide not to pursue the case further."
The ruling marks a dramatic moment in Assange's years-long legal battles in Britain — though likely not its final chapter.
US prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks' publication of leaked military and diplomatic documents a decade ago.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.
Lawyers for the 49-year-old Australian argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing leaked documents that exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The judge, however, said Assange's actions, if proven, would "amount to offences in this jurisdiction that would not be protected by his right to freedom of speech."
The defence also argued during a three-week hearing in the fall that extradition threatens Assange's human rights because he risks "a grossly disproportionate sentence" and detention in "draconian and inhumane conditions" that would exacerbate his severe depression and other mental health problems.
The judge agreed with that argument. She said Assange suffered from moderate to severe clinical depression and was a "sometimes despairing man" genuinely fearful about his future.
Lawyers for the US government deny that Assange is being prosecuted merely for publishing the leaked documents, saying the case "is in large part based upon his unlawful involvement" in the theft of the diplomatic cables and military files by US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.
The prosecution of Assange has been condemned by journalists and human rights groups, who say it undermines free speech around the world.
They welcomed the judge's decision, even though it was not made on free-speech grounds.
"This is a huge relief to anyone who cares about the rights of journalists," The Freedom of the Press Foundation tweeted:
"The extradition request was not decided on press freedom grounds; rather, the judge essentially ruled the US prison system was too repressive to extradite. However, the result will protect journalists everywhere."
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, to avoid being sent to Sweden, Assange sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was beyond the reach of UK and Swedish authorities — but also effectively a prisoner, unable to leave the tiny diplomatic mission in London's tony Knightsbridge area.
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 jumping bail in 2012.
Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed, but Assange remains in London's high-security Belmarsh Prison, brought to court in a prison van throughout his extradition hearing.
Cuban medical brigade that will assist COVID-19 patients in Montserrat. Havana, Cuba. July 21, 2020. | Photo: Twitter/ @BrunoRguezP
A proposal to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to a contingent of Cuban doctors who specialize in disaster situations and serious epidemics, has been endorsed by four members of the British Parliament.
According to the official site of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the United Kingdom, the four members of the House of Commons – Paula Barker, Ian Byrne, Dan Carden and Kim Johnson, highlighted the humanitarian aid provided by Cuba and the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors.
With the four formal nominations of the legislators, 16 requests submitted by British parliamentarians are accumulated, to which another eight were sent by academics from the United Kingdom.
Nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize have a deadline of January 31 of each year and can only be made by parliamentarians, academics, awardees, judges of international courts, and active or retired members of the Committee.
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that, since its creation in 2005, the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics has saved hundreds of thousands of lives in areas of Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia, which have been hit by earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and epidemics.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US, a judge at the Old Bailey has said.
Judge Vanessa Baraitser said she had refused his extradition because of fears that he could commit suicide.
The Australian activist, 49, faced an 18-count indictment alleging a plot to hack computers and a conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information.
He was re-arrested in September over new charges contained in a US indictment.
It alleges that he conspired with army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a scrambled password, known as “hash”, to a classified US defence department computer.
The charges also offer further details of alleged hacking plotters that Assange and his WikiLeaks colleagues are said to have recruited.
Assange denies plotting with Manning to crack an encrypted password on US Department of Defence computers and claims there is no evidence anyone’s safety was put at risk.
In an extraordinary phone call, U.S. President Donald Trump pleaded Saturday with election officials in the southern U.S. state of Georgia to find him enough votes to overturn his pivotal loss there to President-elect Joe Biden.
“So, look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state,” Trump told the state’s top elections official, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in a recording obtained by The Washington Post and published Sunday afternoon. (Read transcript of phone call)
In an hourlong call, Trump sometimes assailed Raffensperger and sometimes flattered him and his office’s general counsel, Ryan Germany. The president disputed the accuracy of three separate vote counts in Georgia that showed Biden was the first Democratic presidential contender to capture the state since 1992.
On Sunday, Trump said on Twitter, “I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!”
FILE – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference in Atlanta, Nov. 11, 2020.
Raffensperger replied a few hours later, “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.”
In the United States’ indirect form of democracy, Biden, by winning the popular vote in the state, won all 16 of Georgia’s electoral votes en route to a 306-232 margin in the Electoral College.
On Wednesday, a joint session of Congress with Vice President Mike Pence presiding will meet. At least a dozen Republican U.S. senators have said they will join an unknown number of House Republican colleagues in objecting to the certification of Electoral College votes for Biden.
Dozens of House, Senate Republicans Joining Likely Futile Effort to Reject Biden Victory
Trump encourages Wednesday protest, two weeks ahead of opponent’s inauguration
The effort is expected to fail. Democrats hold the majority in the House and prominent Republican senators have said they won’t back the challenge.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are set to be inaugurated January 20.
Even if Trump were to upend the Georgia vote, Biden would still have more than the 270-vote majority needed to win the presidency in the Electoral College.
FILE – Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., speaks to the media, at the White House in Washington.
Reaction to the call was swift Sunday afternoon.
Harris described it as “the voice of desperation” and a “bald faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States.”
“Absolutely appalling,” Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois, said of the call on Twitter. “To every member of Congress considering objecting to the election results, you cannot — in light of this — do so with a clean conscience. #RestoreOurGOP”
“Republicans, there is no defense for this. None,” Jeff Flake, a former Republican senator from Arizona, tweeted.
“I will not be silent as the outgoing president attempts to subvert the will of more than 5 million voters in my state,” a Democratic representative from the state of Georgia, Carolyn Bourdeaux, said on Twitter. “This country is a democracy, not a dictatorship — and I will use every power in my authority to reject Trump’s attacks on our election.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., condemned Trump’s actions as “despicable abuses of power” that are potentially impeachable.
The president wasn’t without support, however. The Arizona Republican Party tweeted, “President Trump sounded really good (strong, clear voice; no static) on the “recording” – he cares about #ElectionIntegrity, as all Americans do. Thank you, Mr. President!”
Trump asked the Georgia officials to recalculate the vote count and said that if Raffensperger refused to overturn the vote in the state, he would be taking “a big risk.”
Throughout the call, Raffensperger and Germany rebuffed Trump’s assertions that he had been defrauded of a win in the state. Trump has lost dozens of legal challenges claiming vote and vote-counting irregularities cost him victories in Georgia and in other political battleground states.
AP Fact Check: Trump’s Claims of Fake Georgia Votes are Unfounded
President Donald Trump put forth an array of fuzzy accounting and false claims in a phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state seeking a reversal of his election defeat
Trump rejected the claims by Raffensperger and Germany that the Georgia outcome was legitimate.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” Trump said. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”
Raffensperger responded: “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”
Throughout the call, Trump repeated he had won the state. “There’s no way I lost Georgia,” he said at one point. “There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes.”
FILE – Supporters of President Donald Trump hold signs during a rally outside the Georgia State Capitol, in Atlanta, Nov. 13, 2020.
The president linked his fate in the state to Tuesday’s Senate runoff elections in which two incumbent Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, respectively face Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock in contests that will determine control of the U.S. Senate during the first two years of the Biden presidency.
“You have a big election coming up,” Trump told Raffensperger, “and because of what you’ve done to the president — you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam.”
“Because of what you’ve done to the president,” Trump said, speaking of himself in the third person, “a lot of people aren’t going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative, because they hate what you did to the president. OK? They hate it. And they’re going to vote. And you would be respected, really respected, if this can be straightened out before the (Tuesday) election.”
Trump’s call to Raffensperger is Trump’s latest effort to pressure state officials and lawmakers to overturn the votes in their political battleground states that Biden won or name Trump supporters as electors instead of ones supporting Biden.
Abu Dhabi Fund for Development said its technical team is remotely inspecting the projects it had financed in many partner countries.
The move is part of the Fund’s effort to ensure continuity, timely progression or completion of all development activities it had undertaken in beneficiary countries, regardless of the challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic.
The team inspected these projects in Cuba, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, St Vincent, the Grenadines, Colombia, Togo and Guinea. It said that all the projects were being implemented as per schedule.
“Despite many challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, Abu Dhabi Development Fund has taken all necessary measures to ensure continuity and timely implementation of various projects in beneficiary countries,” said Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, Director General of ADFD.
“This is the time when our partner nations need our support the most. We need to live up to their expectations as well as our promises. Moreover, these projects are crucial for supporting the economies in these countries at a challenging time,” he stated.
Al Suwaidi said that the Fund had discussed with stakeholders in the beneficiary countries about the hurdles in project implementation and effective ways to address the challenges so that they could continue to achieve economic growth in a sustainable manner.
Over the past months, the fund had launched various initiatives to ease financial burdens thrust upon the governments of the beneficiary countries by the Coved-19 pandemic and provide support to the affected strategic sectors. The key projects in parter countries are:
*Solar PV Project, Cuba
The ADFD team inspected the solar PV project in Cuba, whose production capacity was raised to 15 MW from 10 MW in order to meet the growing demand. The AED55 million project includes the construction of four power plants in four provinces.
*Hybrid Energy Project, Antigua and Barbuda
The innovative hybrid solar- and wind-power project in the Caribbean state is 70 per cent complete. Once operational, the AED 55 million initiative will produce 4MW electricity and directly contribute to the country’s goal of generating 20 per cent energy from renewable resources so as to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
The project will power water desalination plants that supply potable water to about 90,000 individuals.
*Hydropower and water supply projects, Argentina
The team inspected progression of the Nahueve hydroelectric project and Desvio Arijon water treatment project being carried out in the South American nation. The hydropower project is 45% complete, while the latter is more than halfway through.
The AED 55 million Nahueve project will give 54,000 people in the northern province of Neuquen access to electricity, annually offset carbon dioxide emissions by 23,000 tonnes, save 7.3 million litres of fossil fuel and help irrigate 120 hectares of agricultural land.
The Desvío Arijón project will serve 19 provinces, providing potable water for more than 300,000 people.
*Solar Project, Togo
The 30MW solar plant is being set up in Blitta with a funding of AED55 million by ADFD. The project, more than half of which is complete, will serve about 600,000 households, over 700 small and medium enterprises, as well las sectors such as education and health. In addition, it will create jobs in the region.
*Electricity distribution and community development projects, Guinea
Abu Dhabi Fund for Development financed the establishment of the AED67.5 million (US$18.36 million) National Distribution Centre with an aim to enhance the capacity of the national distribution network in the capital region of Conakry by efficiently managing and ensuring stability of supply. The project was completed and inaugurated in November 2020.
The Fund also financed an AED42 million community development programme in Guinea, which includes the establishment of automated laboratories, an automatic bakery, a training facility in the Bouke region and rural road development.
In addition to financing projects, ADFD directly supervises their management and implementation. It also ensures implementation of its projects in accordance with the agreements signed with the beneficiary countries.
Abu Dhabi Fund announced in 2020 a decision to defer the monthly installments on any outstanding dues of countries, that availed of its concessionary credit facility. The initiative was aimed at helping beneficiary countries to weather the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.-TradeArabia News Service
Minister of Health and Wellness Jeffrey Bostic speaking during a press conference
The Government of Barbados is mobilizing efforts to respond to the dramatic Covid-19 case spike triggered by the Boxing Day bus crawl.
The government of Barbados has issued a rapid response to a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases which were traced to a “super spreader” Boxing Day.
Authorities have assumed that the island remains fully able to conduct mass testing and provide care and accommodation for persons who test positive for the illness, having secured a large number of test kits previously while having some on order, while added staff will ensure there is no backlog at the laboratory amid the increased demand.
At the time of the press conference held by Cabinet Sub-Committee Chairman and the Health Minister on Saturday, 161 people had tested positive for the coronavirus at Dodds prison, including 113 inmates and 48 officers and staff.
Covid-19 Sub-Committee Chairman, Senator Dr. Jerome X. Walcott, J.P., indicated that a quarantine areas of the St Philip Penal institution could accommodate 100 persons and that it would be used as an isolation center within the prison. Furthermore, Dr. Walcott stated that a medical facility had been identified to be used for seriously ill persons.
The government has allocated space at the Harrison’s Point Isolation Facility, which can presently house over 200 patients, and the Government has started to explore the use of other centres, such as the Blackman and Gollop Primary School which was used in March last year.
Meanwhile, the state-owned Queen Elizabeth Hospital has also been making preparations in line with its COVID-19 response plan.
“They are making preparations on how patients were triaged at the Accident and Emergency Department and there are plans afoot in terms of shifting certain out-patients clinics to allow for greater separation of patients when they are being triaged,” Dr Walcott disclosed.
In addition to those who have tested positive at the prison facility, the number of infected people has also risen among the general public, identified through contract tracing and visitors arriving to the island. Authorities continue to investigate clusters.
Tracking bracelets will be used for those ordered to quarantine beginning Wednesday. Officials will be notified if individuals attempt to remove the bracelets or if they leave their geographical location. The devices are said to be tamper-proof and water resistant.
Authorities warn that those who opt to break out of quarantine could be convicted.
Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, has sent a letter in solidarity with Prime Minister Mottley. Browne expressed confidence in Barbadian authorities’ ability to control the situation and indicated that his country would not be prohibiting travel to and from Barbados. The PM also offered his assistance.
New Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi declared a “fiscal emergency” and ordered the island’s Department of Justice to step up anti-corruption efforts Saturday — hours after being sworn into office.
His inaugural speech included a vow to work for statehood. He is a Democrat The Puerto Rico representative to the U.S. House, Jenniffer Gonzalez, is a Republican, and she also will work for statehood. As noted earlier, on November 3 the ballot question on statehood passed by four percentage points.
Why it matters: Puerto Rico has experienced a tumultuous period politically and economically, with three governors in four years and a billion-dollar public debt.
Political analyst Mario Negrón told AP, “The economy is in critical condition, and even though federal funds are on their way, people forget that the debt will have to be paid starting in February.”
The big picture: Pierluisi signed six executive orders Saturday night — including the fiscal measure instructing government agencies to reduce costs, such as imposing travel limits, and for the local DOJ to liaise closely with federal prosecutors in corruption cases.
The 61-year-old leader of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party also ordered the Caribbean island’s health department to “design a robust” plan for coronavirus testing, according to Bloomberg.
What he’s saying: In a bilingual speech after being sworn in earlier Saturday, Pierluisi vowed to “turn the page on political turbulence,” fight corruption, “work hard on what unites us,” and achieve prosperity through statehood.
He called on “everyone to battle our common enemies: the pandemic, poverty and crime, lack of access to good education and health care, economic stagnation, corruption and inequality.”
Doing this while jump-starting the economy, attracting investment and growing the tourism industry would “put Puerto Rico on a path to recovery and progress,” Pierluisi said.
Of note: Pierluisi briefly served as governor after former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigned in 2019 amid massive protests after the U.S. territory’s House of Representatives found five impeachable offenses against him.
The new governor previously caucused with the Democrats as the island’s congressional representative for eight years.
