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South Korea coronavirus cases highest since March: Live news | News

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South Korea coronavirus cases highest since March: Live news | News
  • South Korea reports the highest number of daily coronavirus cases since March, and parliament forced to close amid expectations that authorities will impose tougher restrictions. 

  • The U-turn by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on testing close contacts of people with COVID-19 raises concern among experts about asymptomatic spread of the disease.

  • The Australian state of Victoria has reported its lowest number of cases in nearly two months.

  • More than 24 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, and 15.8 million have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 826,000 people have died.

Here are the latest updates:

Thursday, August 27

07:00 GMT – Aerospace giant Rolls-Royce logs £5.4bn H1 loss on virus

British aerospace giant Rolls-Royce said it has suffered a massive net loss in the first half of the year as the coronavirus outbreak sparked a crisis in air transport.

Rolls, which operates in the air, defence and energy sectors, posted a net loss of £5.4bn ($7.1bn) in the six months to June, after a net loss of £909m ($1.2bn) a year earlier.

The company also unveiled a £2bn ($2.6bn) asset disposal programme.

06:45 GMT – India reports record 75,000 new virus infections

India has recorded another single-day record of new coronavirus cases, reporting 75,760 new confirmed infections in the past 24 hours.

The health ministry also reported 1,023 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities up to 60,472.

India’s previous highest daily count was 70,488 on August 22. India has been recording more than 60,000 new infections per day for the last two weeks and now has reported 3.3 million cases since the pandemic began.

Hello, this is Linah Alsaafin taking over the blog from my colleague Kate Mayberry.

04:40 GMT – Online schooling excludes 463 million children: UN

The UN Children’s Fund says 463 million children are not able to access virtual schooling, which has become necessary during the pandemic, because they do not have the equipment or access to the internet.

After gathering data from 100 countries, UNICEF said children in South Asia, Africa, the Pacific and East Asia were most seriously affected.

“The sheer number of children whose education was completely disrupted for months on end is a global education emergency,’ said Henrietta Fore, executive director of the fund. 

03:50 GMT – South Korean parliament closed; lawmakers in self-quarantine

South Korea’s parliament has closed after a photojournalist covering the governing party tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to Yonhap news agency.

Parliament said more than 50 people, including 14 senior members of the Democratic Party, had been in contact with the journalist and would need to go into self-quarantine and get tested.

Several government offices have also been forced to close because of reported cases, Yonhap said.

03:40 GMT – South Korea urges people to work from home

South Korea is urging employers to allow their staff to work from home.

The country is battling a surge in new cases, mostly linked to churches and an anti-government rally earlier this month, and are worried offices could become hotspots.

“Please carry out thorough checks of risk factors at workplaces, where the work environment is especially vulnerable to infection, such as call centres and logistics warehouses,” said Health Minister Park Neung-hoo as he reminded businesses of the need to adopt flexible working practices. 

02:30 GMT – Hong Kong moves to relax some coronavirus restrictions

Hong Kong is moving to relax some of its rules on social distancing measures from midnight (16:00 GMT) on Thursday for seven days. 

The first phase of relaxation includes the re-opening of indoor premises such as cafes and restaurants for limited hours, as  as well as outdoor sports premises where activities involve little physical contact.

Gatherings of more than two people will remain banned.

02:10 GMT – Urumqi begins new round of testing: state media

In China, the People’s Daily says the city of Urumqi in the far western region of Xinjiang, has begun nucleic acid testing of “key communities” as part of measures to “gradually restore normality”.

The city has reported no new infections for 11 days.

01:35 GMT – South Korea reports biggest jump in cases since March

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the country recorded 441 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number since March.

This is the first time the number has been above 400 since March 7, and raises the prospect of tighter restrictions to curb the disease’s spread. Cases have been in triple digits since August 14.

Tougher restrictions would include a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people, while cinemas, cafes and wedding venues might also have to close.

00:00 GMT – Victoria reports lowest number of daily cases in two months

The Australian state of Victoria reported 23 deaths and 113 new infections – the lowest figures in nearly two months, helped by a strict lockdown.

The state is battling a second wave of the virus thought to have been set off by returning travellers breaching quarantine rules.

23:00 GMT (Wednesday) – Air New Zealand posts $300m loss

Air New Zealand has posted a net loss of 454 million New Zealand dollars ($300m) for the financial year ended June 30.

Like many around the world, the closing of borders has led to a collapse in the airline’s passenger traffic.

About one-third of Air New Zealand’s 12,500 employees are expected to lose their jobs as a result.

22:30 GMT (Wednesday) – Concern at US testing U-turn

Health experts are concerned a sudden decision by the US to change testing guidance for people who have been exposed to COVID-19 patients but have not developed symptoms risks spreading the virus further.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now says so-called “close contacts” of people with COVID-19 do not “necessarily need” to be tested if they do not have symptoms.

The CDC has not explained the decision.

—-

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

Read all the updates from yesterday (August 26) here.

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World

Vladimir Putin has delayed the invasion of Ukraine at least three times.

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2 years ago

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December 20, 2022

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Putin has repeatedly consulted with Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about the invasion, Europa Press told Ukraine’s chief intelligence director Vadim Skibitsky.

According to Skibitsky, it was the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), which is responsible for counterintelligence and espionage work, that put pressure on Gerasimov and other military agencies to agree to launch an offensive. .

However, according to the Ukrainian intelligence services, the FSB considered that by the end of February sufficient preparations had already been made to guarantee the success of the Russian Armed Forces in a lightning invasion.

However, according to Kyiv, the Russian General Staff provided the Russian troops with supplies and ammunition for only three days, hoping that the offensive would be swift and immediately successful.

The head of Ukrainian intelligence also emphasized the cooperation of local residents, who always provided the Ukrainian authorities with up-to-date information about the Russian army, such as the number of soldiers or the exact location of troops.

The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees to European countries, which is why the UN classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945). gg.). ).

At the moment, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.

The UN has presented as confirmed 6,755 civilian deaths and 10,607 wounded since the beginning of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.

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Life sentence for former Swedish official for spying for Russia

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2 years ago

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December 20, 2022

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A Stockholm court on Monday sentenced a former Swedish intelligence officer to life in prison for spying for Russia, and his brother to at least 12 years in prison. In what is considered one of the most serious cases in Swedish counterintelligence history, much of the trial took place behind closed doors in the name of national security.

According to the prosecution, it was Russian military intelligence, the GRU, who took advantage of the information provided by the two brothers between 2011 and their arrest at the end of 2021.

Peyman Kia, 42, has held many senior positions in the Swedish security apparatus, including the army and his country’s intelligence services (Säpo). His younger brother, Payam, 35, is accused of “participating in the planning” of the plot and of “managing contacts with Russia and the GRU, including passing on information and receiving financial rewards.”

Both men deny the charges, and their lawyers have demanded an acquittal on charges of “aggravated espionage,” according to the Swedish news agency TT.

The trial coincides with another case of alleged Russian espionage, with the arrest of the Russian-born couple in late November in a suburb of Stockholm by a police team arriving at dawn in a Blackhawk helicopter.

Research website Bellingcat identified them as Sergei Skvortsov and Elena Kulkova. The couple allegedly acted as sleeper agents for Moscow, having moved to Sweden in the late 1990s.

According to Swedish press reports, the couple ran companies specializing in the import and export of electronic components and industrial technology.

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The man was again detained at the end of November for “illegal intelligence activities.” His partner, suspected of being an accomplice, has been released but remains under investigation.

According to Swedish authorities, the arrests are not related to the trial of the Kia brothers.

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Ukraine admitted that Russia may announce a general mobilization

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2 years ago

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December 19, 2022

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“They can strengthen their positions. We understand that this can happen. At the same time, we do not rule out that they will announce a general mobilization,” Danilov said in an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda online publication.

Danilov believed that this mobilization would also be convened “to exterminate as many as possible” of Russian citizens, so that “they would no longer have any problems on their territory.”

In this sense, Danilov also reminded that Russia has not given up on securing control over Kyiv or the idea of ​​the complete “destruction” of Ukraine. “We have to be ready for anything,” he said.

“I want everyone to understand that [os russos] they have not given up on the idea of ​​destroying our nation. If they don’t have Kyiv in their hands, they won’t have anything in their hands, we must understand this,” continued Danilov, who also did not rule out that a new Russian offensive would come from “Belarus and other territories.” .

As such, Danilov praised the decision of many of its residents who chose to stay in the Ukrainian capital when the war broke out in order to defend the city.

“They expected that there would be panic, that people would run, that there would be nothing to protect Kyiv,” he added, referring to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees to European countries, which is why the UN classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945). gg.). ).

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At the moment, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.

The Russian invasion, justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security, was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.

The UN has presented as confirmed 6,755 civilian deaths and 10,607 wounded since the beginning of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.

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