Peru Buys First Batch of COVID-19 Vaccines

Peru is expecting to receive its first batch of coronavirus vaccines this month to launch its long-awaited immunization program.President Francisco Sagasti announced on Wednesday the government purchased 38 million doses from the Sinopharm laboratory of China, with the first 1 million doses arriving this month.Sagasti said that because phase three of clinical trials of the vaccine was carried out in Peru, his administration was in a better position to access the Sinopharm vaccines.He said, it also helped to verify the vaccine’s effectiveness among the national population.The president said, the most vulnerable citizens would have priority is receiving the first vaccinations.Peru also entered into an agreement to buy 14 million doses of vaccine developed by AstraZeneca with Oxford University, with the first batch arriving no later than September, or possibly sooner.Peru also signed an agreement to buy an additional 13.2 million vaccine doses through the COVAX Facility, a group led by the World Health Organization, which aims to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines among less wealthy nations.The president also announced Prime Minister Violeta Bermudez will lead a working group to oversee the implementation of the vaccination program.Peru has recorded more than 1 million coronavirus cases and nearly 38,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Netherlands Begins Coronavirus Vaccinations

The Netherlands delivered its first coronavirus vaccine dose Wednesday to a care home nurse, nearly two weeks after other European Union nations began inoculations.
 
A shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was given live on television to nurse Sanna Elkadiri, the first recipient at a mass vaccination center in Veghel, 120 kilometers southeast of Amsterdam.  Afterwards, Elkadiri told an interviewer, “This is a very important moment for me as a person who works in the care sector. You want to provide the care knowing that your clients are safe. Without the vaccine that is not possible but from now on I can do it.”The Dutch government has come under fierce criticism for its late start to vaccinations.  Prime Minister Mark Rutte told parliament Tuesday his government had focused preparations on the easy-to-handle AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not yet been cleared for use in the European Union. Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, AstaZeneca’s does not require deep-freeze storage at a certain temperature.The Netherlands is in a five-week lockdown as infection rates rise across the country.Nearly 12,000 people are confirmed to have died of COVID-19 in the Netherlands since the pandemic started, although officials say the true number is likely higher because not all people who died with symptoms were tested. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.
 

Britain’s Johnson Defends Lockdown Decision to Parliament

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament Wednesday that the government had “no choice but to return to a national lockdown,” as health officials estimate that one in every 50 people in the nation have had COVID-19 in the last week.Figures released Tuesday by Britain’s Office for National Statistics show the number is higher in London, where one in 30 people had the virus between December 27 and January 2. The figure does not include people in hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions.Addressing parliament Wednesday ahead of lawmakers’ retroactive votes on lockdown measures introduced earlier this week, Johnson said the plan is for the lockdown to last until the end of March, but with a mid-February review. European Health Officials Cast Nervous Eye at Britain’s Struggling HospitalsEuropean health officials anxiously watch pandemic developments in Britain, the epicenter of a mutant coronavirus strain that is overwhelming hospitals thereHe said the lockdown is an effort to slow the spread of the virus while the country is accelerating its vaccination program.Under the latest lockdown, schools, outdoor sports facilities, bars, restaurants, hair salons, gyms, theaters and most shops are closed.Johnson said 1.3 million people have received at least one shot of the two-dose inoculation regime since injections began in early December. That includes almost a quarter of people over the age of 80. Comparing the vaccination effort to a race, Johnson said after the “marathon of last year, we are now in a sprint …to vaccinate the vulnerable faster than the virus can reach them.”New COVID-19 infections have soared in recent weeks as public health officials struggled to contain a new variant that the government says is 50% to 70% more contagious.Britain reported 830 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday. The death toll from the pandemic is now 76,423, one of the world’s highest tallies, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

British Judge Denies Bail to WikiLeaks’ Founder Assange

A British judge has rejected a request to release WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange on bail, ordering him to remain incarcerated while British courts determine whether he should face espionage charges in the United States.District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said Wednesday that Assange could fail to appear in court if he is released and therefore must remain in a high-security prison while British courts consider a U.S. appeal of her decision not to extradite him.The decision to deny bail to Assange came two days after Baraitser rebuffed an American request to extradite him to the U.S. to face spying charges over WikiLeaks’ disclosure of confidential military and diplomatic documents a decade ago. Baraitser’s extradition denial was based on concerns over Assange’s well-being, saying he was likely to commit suicide if held under harsh conditions in U.S. prisons.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – In this May 19, 2017 photo, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange greets supporters outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been in self imposed exile since 2012.Assange will remain in London’s Belmarsh Prison, where he has been detained since his April 2019 arrest for skipping bail seven years earlier in a separate court case.The U.S. has indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ disclosures. Assange could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison if convicted.Assange’s attorneys say he was acting as a journalist and therefore is entitled to U.S. constitutional free speech protection for leaking documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

UK Lockdown Causes Biggest Drop in New Car Sales Since World War Two

British new car sales fell nearly 30% last year in their biggest annual drop since 1943 as lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus hit the sector, a trade industry body said Wednesday. Demand stood at 1.63 million cars in 2020, preliminary data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed. It was particularly hard hit by a 97% fall in April, the first full month of a national lockdown. Dealerships gradually reopened in June across the United Kingdom’s four nations. “We lost nearly three quarters of a million units over three or four months, which we never got back,” said SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes. Showrooms in England were closed again during a second lockdown in November but many were better prepared with “click and collect” options, allowing more purchases, but still leading to a 27% year-on-year slump. The performance leaves new car sales at their lowest level since 1992, and suffering the biggest drop since 1943. Then, Britain was fighting World War Two and industry was repurposed for the effort. Last year, the sector was also awaiting a trade deal with its biggest export market, the European Union. An agreement was reached on December 24, meaning immediate tariffs and disruption were avoided, but the sector warned on Wednesday of additional costs. Diesel cars accounted for around one in five sales while battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles stood at a tenth. Expectations for 2021In common with other non-essential retail, the car sector faces the challenge of new national lockdowns announced in England and Scotland this week. The SMMT expects sales to be below 2 million this year, with the sector nervously looking ahead to March, one of the top two selling months of the year due to the change in the license plate series. “Where the industry is focused at the moment, is what do we need to do to try to sustain sales …, sustain manufacturing over the next two to three months, especially with March being such a critical month for the industry and that will undoubtedly be affected,” said Hawes.
 

Venezuela Seats Pro-Maduro Congress

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was set to further consolidate power as a majority-socialist Congress was installed Tuesday in Caracas. The new Congress was set to be led by Maduro’s former chief of staff, Jorge Rodriguez. Maduro was expected to attend the inaugural session after having avoided legislative sessions for years when the opposition controlled the National Assembly. Today “begins a new cycle for Venezuela, a new National Assembly born from the popular vote is born,” Maduro wrote on Twitter. “Together we will take a great leap toward economic recovery, reconciliation and national peace.”People raise their hands during the swear-in ceremony of Venezuela’s National Assembly new term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 5, 2021.The installation follows Venezuela’s December 6 legislative elections. The opposition boycotted the vote, which resulted in socialists taking control of the National Assembly. This marks a shift in balance as many Western powers, including the U.S., have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s de facto president. Elected in the context of the opposition’s 2015 landslide victory, Guaido has slowly lost public support since he declared himself interim president in January 2019. In the aftermath of the legislative elections, opposition lawmakers voted in December to extend their term for another year. The Maduro-controlled Supreme Court was quick to revoke the law. The decision, however, has not stopped Guaido and his allies from further pushing for new elections. Members of Venezuelan People’s Union (UPV) protest outside Venezuela’s National Assembly building during the swear-in ceremony for a new term in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 5, 2021.”The national parliament will not be stopped until we have seen free elections take place in Venezuela,” Guaido said in a Sunday video message shared on Twitter. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement last month the elections in Venezuela were a “political farce intended to look like legislative elections.” He said the U.S. “will continue to recognize” Guaido as interim president. Although U.S. sanctions remain in effect on Venezuela, the U.S. Treasury Department has issued a license allowing certain transactions with Guaido. A statement Monday, however, says transactions involving the Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly convened by Maduro or the National Assembly that was just seated are not authorized. 
 

French Health Minister Details Plan to Accelerate COVID-19 Vaccinations

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said Tuesday the nation was going to “amplify, accelerate and simplify” its COVID-19 vaccination program after coming under fire for the initial slow roll out of the program.In an interview with French radio, Veran said more than 2,000 doctors, nurses and other health care workers have received vaccinations. He also announced that firefighters and home aid workers age 50 and older would also be prioritized “because they are also professionals who are in contact with fragile people and who may have to work with the sick.”The faster-paced vaccination campaign comes after the government was criticized for its slow rollout of the vaccine, delivering just over 500 inoculations in the first week, compared to hundreds of thousands delivered by Germany in the same period.The criticism prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to call a meeting with Veran, Prime Minister Jean Castex and other leaders late Tuesday to discuss how to speed up the process.Veran vowed to increase vaccinations exponentially in the next few days, promising the pace of the program “will be on par with that of our neighbors” by the end of the week.He said France is prepared to deliver 500,000 doses per week of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and once it is approved by the European Medicines regulatory agency, (EMA) they will be prepared to deliver 500,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine per month. The EMA is expected to consider the Moderna vaccine Wednesday.

Conditions Deteriorate for Thousands of Migrants Stranded in Bosnia

Conditions continue to deteriorate for thousands of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers stranded in Bosnia as politicians fail to reach a solution to alleviate their plight, the International Organization for Migration warned.About 6,000 migrants are housed in official accommodation centers in Bosnia while nearly 3,000 other migrants, including women and children, are sleeping outdoors in Una Sana Canton, on the border with Croatia. The IOM said about half of those people are squatting under sub-standard conditions in abandoned buildings. Another 1,400, mainly single men, who had been living in the Lipa Emergency Tent Camp were forced to leave after the camp burned down. The migrant camp Lipa is seen in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jan. 5, 2021.They have been living outdoors in bitterly cold temperatures and frequent rainy conditions for the past two weeks. IOM Bosnia Chief of Mission Peter Van der Auweraert said the situation is not sustainable. Speaking on a video link from the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, he said there is space in two official centers that could shelter all the people currently sleeping outside. “What has been impossible is to get a consensus between the central government, which are, at least normally, in charge of dealing with this issue and the local authorities where these two centers are located to allow migrants access to these centers,” he said. “There is international funding available. There is international assistance available. What has been the difficulty is to get a political consensus as to where these migrants could be accommodated.” Auweraert said most of the migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers come from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Algeria and Morocco, and most use Bosnia as a transit route through Croatia and Slovenia to get to the European Union. Migrants cook on a stove improvised from wheel rims at a makeshift camp in a forest outside Velika Kladusa, Bosnia, Jan. 5, 2021.Their presence has generated hostility and anti-migrant sentiments among some local authorities and populations, he added. “I think there is some issues in terms of the media here in Bosnia-Herzegovina highlighting mostly negative stories among migrants,” Auweraert said. “But I also think we need to be very careful not to overplay the anti-migrant or refugee sentiments in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Clearly there is a minority of people that is very vocal on social media … but there is a consensus, I believe, amongst the majority of people that while they are here, they should be treated humanely.” The IOM official said urgent action is needed to end the political impasse and alleviate the suffering of the migrants. While their physical health is degrading, he also noted signs that the situation is taking a serious toll on their mental health. 
 

Norway Says More Than 50% of New Cars Are Electric

A report released Tuesday says Norway has become the first country in the world in which 50 percent of all new cars it sold are electric.Norway’s Road Traffic Information Council (Opplysningsradet for Veitrafikken) says electric vehicles accounted for 54.3 percent of new car sales in 2020, up from 42.4 percent a year earlier.The group says the four best-selling models in the Nordic country were the Volkswagen/ Audi e-tron, the Tesla Model 3, the Volkswagen ID.3 and the Nissan Leaf — all fully electric.The fifth placed car — the Volkswagen Golf — can be bought in a rechargeable version but the statistics do not differentiate among engine types.The report says electric cars accounted for 66.7 percent of all new sales in Norway during December, a new monthly record.Norway set a goal of eliminating combustion-engine vehicles by 2025 and fully electric vehicles are tax exempt and receive other government subsidies. The nation gets most of its electric energy from hydroelectric dams.   

Public Frustration Grows as France’s Vaccination Campaign Lags 

In France, public frustration with the government is growing as the nation’s coronavirus immunization campaign gets off to a slow start. In response, officials say they will speed up and widen the vaccine rollout.As of Monday, only 2,500 people had received the vaccine against COVID-19 in France — most of them nursing home residents and their nurses.  It is too small a number, critics say,  for a rollout that began, as in other EU countries, on December 27. A doctor administers a dose of Pfizer-BioNtech coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine to an old woman on Jan. 4, 2020 at the Antonin Balmes gerontology center in Montpellier in the south of France.Critics describe the pace as ridiculously low compared with neighboring Germany, where at least 264,000 people have been vaccinated so far. French President Emmanuel Macron and his government are under pressure to do better, especially considering the relative success of other nations in Europe.    One of the main critics is Jean Rottner, the president of France’s Grand Est region. Rottner says the immunization strategy in France is a scandal, and he says the government keeps failing like it did for the masks and the tests. He says he is devastated since his region is heavily hit by the pandemic. FILE – A woman is tested for COVID-19 at a mobile testing center in Marseille, France, Sept. 24, 2020.French officials claim they are still on track to reach their goal to have one million people vaccinated by the end of January. To make it, authorities say they will set up 600 immunization centers across the territory by the end of this month. Olivier Veran, France’s health minister, addressed concerns Tuesday, and he vowed to catch up with the other EU countries.  Veran says the French government will now amplify, accelerate and simplify the immunization strategy. Firefighters and in-home care workers above 50 years of age, will now receive the vaccine. The minister, who oversees the fight against the virus, says it is a permanent race to save lives. Although the immunization response is coordinated at the European level, each of the 27 members is responsible for setting its own strategy. The Netherlands will only start its immunization campaign on January 8. FILE – Healthcare workers assist a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit at the Joseph Imbert Hospital Center in Arles, southern France, April 5, 2020.As of Monday, more than 65,000 people had died from COVID-19 in France according data from Johns Hopkins University.  

New COVID-19 Lockdowns in Britain; New Variant Found in New York

Britain’s prime minister announced a fresh round of lockdowns Monday, closing schools and nonessential shops, as the country begins vaccinating health care workers and the elderly.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said people must stay at home until at least mid-February, noting that British hospitals are under more strain now than they have been at any point during the pandemic.“If the rollout of the vaccine program continues to be successful. If deaths start to fall as the vaccine takes effect. And critically, if everyone plays their part by following the rules, then I hope we can steadily move out of lockdown,” Johnson said in a televised address Monday.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Chase Farm Hospital in north London, Jan. 4, 2021, part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.The announcement comes days after British health officials confirmed a variant of the coronavirus that doctors say is far more contagious than the original.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday that a case of the same variant had been confirmed in an older New York state resident who had not traveled recently.NEW: The Wadsworth Lab has confirmed New York State’s first case of the U.K. variant (B.1.1.7) of the virus that causes COVID.An individual from Saratoga County, New York, tested positive for the strain. The individual had no known travel history.— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) Brian Pinker, 82, receives the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Sam Foster at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, England, Jan. 4, 2021.British officials say half a million doses of the vaccine are ready for use.The AstraZeneca vaccine is cheaper and more easily transported than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine because it does not need to be kept at extremely cold temperatures. The Pfizer shot has already been administered to many health care professionals in Britain and the United States.France, which is administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, pledged Monday to increase the speed at which it is inoculating its health care workers after facing criticism from the public.FILE – A man applies finishing touches to graffiti representing a vaccine, amidst the spread of coronavirus disease, in Kolkata, India, Jan. 2, 2021.In Russia, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that more than 800,000 people had received the domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine and that 1.5 million doses had been distributed throughout the country of 147 million.The Kremlin is pinning its hopes on mass vaccinations, not nationwide restrictions, to stop the spread of the virus and save its struggling economy from the hit of another lockdown.The coronavirus has killed more than 1.8 million people globally since emerging in China in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins.Experts fear the worst is yet to come, predicting a sharp rise in cases and deaths after weeks of holiday gatherings.VOA’s Fern Robinson contributed to this report.
 

Venezuela’s Oil Exports Sink to 1940s Level Under Tighter US Sanctions, Data Show

Pressured by strict U.S. sanctions, Venezuela’s oil exports plunged by 376,500 barrels per day (bpd) in 2020, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and internal documents from state-run PDVSA, financially squeezing socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s government. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump also put curbs on PDVSA’s main trading partners, the owners of tankers still transporting Venezuelan oil and on the fuel supply to the gasoline-thirsty nation. The punishment, aimed to oust Maduro after his 2018 reelection was called a sham by most Western nations, has led PDVSA to pursue new customers, rely on mostly unknown intermediaries to resell its oil and deepen ties with Iran, another country under U.S. sanctions. Venezuela’s exports of crude and refined products fell 37.5% in 2020 to 626,534 bpd, the lowest in 77 years. The decrease was even larger for fuel imports, which fell 51% compared with 2019, to 83,780 bpd, according to the data. The drop in the crude oil was several times that of the global market, which fell about 9% last year amid COVID-19 constraints. PDVSA did not reply to a request for comment. The state-run company’s inability to revive exports and its new dependence on imported fuel have sunk OPEC member Venezuela’s petroleum industry to levels not seen since the 1940s, when it was boosting crude output while planning its first refineries. PDVSA inaugurated the 310,000-bpd Cardon refinery on the country’s northwest coast in 1947. The facility, along with neighboring Amuay, remain mostly idled because of a lack of maintenance, parts and proper crude to operate. Despite the sanctions’ impact on the economy, Maduro has held onto power with the support of the military, and backed by Cuba, Russia and China. 

Britain Refuses US Extradition of ‘Suicidal’ Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange

A British judge has ruled that Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, cannot be extradited to the United States to answer charges of hacking and theft of classified material because of the risk he could commit suicide in U.S. detention. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell

Heavy Snow Buries Parts of Northern Italy

European weather forecasters say about 2 meters (over 6 feet) of snow fell early Monday in parts of northern Italy’s alpine region, blocking roads and burying cars and houses in some areas.From its Twitter account, the Alpine-Adriatic Meteorological Society posted video from Italy’s northeastern area of Comelico, near the border with Austria. Snow blocked the entrances to homes and buildings, with more snow falling in the small village of Sappada, in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.Italian firefighters said they carried out more than 100 operations to clear roads of snow.In the Veneto region, the firefighters report they used a snow cat – a large, tracked vehicle built for traveling through snow — to rescue a family stuck in a remote area.Forecasters say more snow is expected in the area region in the coming days. 

Scotland to Impose Full Lockdown as COVID-19 Cases Surge

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Monday the country will impose a total lockdown for the rest of January as a surging number of COVID-19 cases threatens to overwhelm hospitals.Speaking before parliament, Sturgeon said she is more concerned about the current situation than at any time since the pandemic began last March. She said the surge is putting pressure on health care facilities, adding: “In fact, our modeling suggests that without further intervention, we could breach inpatient COVID capacity within three or four weeks.”She said effective midnight Monday, all residents will be required to stay home except for essential purposes. There will also be no travel allowed in or out of Scotland during that time, and no more than two people from up to two households will be able to meet outdoors.Sturgeon said Scotland is seeing a “steeply rising trend of infections,” with more than 1,900 new cases over the previous 24 hours, and an overall positivity rate of about 15%.She blamed the surge largely on the new COVID-19 variant, identified last month in the south of Britain. The first minister said the new variant spreads as much as 70% faster than the original strain and accounts for nearly half of new cases in Scotland.She called the new variant a “massive blow” to the fight against the virus and said the simplest way to describe the challenge they face is to compare it to a race, with the vaccine in one lane and the virus in the other, with the virus currently much faster.She said, “To ensure that the vaccine wins this race, it is essential to speed up vaccination as far as possible but to give it the time it needs to get ahead, we must also slow the virus down. And because it is now spreading faster, that means even tougher restrictions are necessary.” 

US Treasury Department Affirms Recognition of Venezuela’s Opposition-Held Congress

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday issued a new license allowing certain transactions with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido despite U.S. sanctions on the country, reaffirming Washington’s support for the politician as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
 
The license, which replaces a similar previous one, also allows for certain transactions with Venezuela’s National Assembly and some others, effectively recognizing the extension of the opposition-controlled National Assembly’s term by a year.
 
The term was extended after the mainstream opposition boycotted a parliamentary election on Dec. 6 handily won by President Nicolas Maduro’s ruling socialists that the opposition and most Western democracies said was neither free nor fair. Venezuela’s Supreme Court last week ruled that the move by the opposition-controlled National Assembly to extend its term an additional year was invalid, paving the way for allies of Maduro to take over the body this month.
 
Washington in January 2019 recognized Venezuelan politician Guaido as the OPEC nation’s rightful leader and has ratcheted up sanctions and diplomatic pressure in the aftermath of Maduro’s 2018 re-election, widely described as fraudulent.
 
Maduro remains in power, backed by Venezuela’s military as well as Russia, China and Cuba.
 
The recognition of Guaido as interim president by the United States and others derives from his position as speaker of the National Assembly. Guaido invoked Venezuela’s constitution to assume a rival interim presidency in 2019, declaring Maduro was usurping the presidency after rigging his 2018 re-election.
 
The Treasury Department in the license said that transactions involving the Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly convened by Maduro or the National Assembly scheduled to be seated on Tuesday are not authorized.

British Health Secretary Doesn’t Rule Out New Restrictions as Coronavirus Continues to Spread

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday the government is not ruling out new restrictions as the coronavirus continues to spread even in areas with the strictest constraints.In television interviews, Hancock said a new variant spreads more easily than the original strains of the virus and Britain’s three-tiered system of restrictions is proving less effective at controlling it.Hancock said that while new restrictions might be necessary, ultimately it is up to people’s behavior. He said people should act as if they already have the virus and take greater care around others.“Yes, it’s about the government rules, and absolutely we’re prepared to bring in, unfortunately, tougher rules if they are needed on the public health advice. But it’s on all of us,” Hancock said.The health secretary praised the National Health Service (NHS) for its vaccination program, saying it has successfully inoculated more than a million people at 700 sites around the country and that there would be more than a thousand sites by the end of the week.Hancock also praised the latest vaccine, produced in a joint effort between the University of Oxford and drug manufacturer AstraZeneca, saying British science is leading the world.Britain reported 55,157 new cases on Sunday, and 455 new deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The nation set a daily record for new cases Saturday with 57,853. 

Hope Fades in Norway Landslide That Left 7 Dead; 3 Missing

Norwegian officials insisted Monday that there was “still hope” in finding survivors in air pockets five days after a landslide killed at least seven people as it carried away homes in a village north of the capital. Three people are still missing.
 
Police spokesman Roger Pettersen said search efforts in the landslide-hit village of Ask, 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Oslo, are still considered “a rescue operation.” But only bodies have been found in the last few days.
 
The region’s below-freezing temperatures are “working against us, but we have been very clear in our advice to the (rescuers) that as long as there are cavities where the missing may have stayed, it is possible to survive,” said Dr. Halvard Stave, who taking part in the rescue operation.  
 
Temperatures in Ask were -8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday.
 
“I would still describe the situation as very unreal,” Anders Oestensen, the mayor of Gjerdrum municipality, where Ask is located.
 
Search teams patrolled with dogs as helicopters and drones with heat-detecting cameras flew over the ravaged hillside in Ask, a village of 5,000 that was hit by the worst landslide in modern Norwegian history. At least 1,000 people were evacuated.
 
The landslide early Wednesday cut across a road through Ask, leaving a deep, crater-like ravine. Some buildings ae now hanging on the edge of the ravine, which grew to be 700 meters (2,300 feet) long and 300 meters (1,000 feet) wide. At least nine buildings with over 30 apartments were destroyed.
 
“This is completely terrible,” King Harald V said after the Norwegian royals visited the landslide site on Sunday.
 
The limited number of daylight hours in Norway at this time of year and fears of further erosion have hampered rescue operations. The ground is fragile at the site and unable to hold the weight of heavy rescue equipment.
 
The exact cause of the accident is not yet known but the area is known for having a lot of quick clay, a material that can change from solid to liquid form. Experts said the quick clay, combined with excessive precipitation and damp winter weather, may have contributed to the landslide.  
 
In 2005, Norwegian authorities warned people not to construct residential buildings in the area saying it was “a high risk zone” for landslides, but houses were eventually built there later in the decade.

7th Body Recovered from Norway Mudslide; 3 Still Missing

Rescue workers have uncovered a seventh body from a landslide that buried homes in a village near Norway’s capital, police said Sunday, but hopes persist that three people still missing might yet be found alive. The tragedy occurred early Wednesday when several houses were destroyed and shifted hundreds of meters under a torrent of mud in the village of Ask, 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Oslo. Police spokesman Bjorn Christian Willersrud told journalists they hoped to find survivors in the landslide zone. “It is still a rescue operation until we decide otherwise,” he said. Earlier Sunday, the head of the rescue operation, Goran Syversen, told reporters: “We are working hard in the depression created by the landslide.”  “We have five teams working at the same time. They are doing very difficult work which is not without risk. Nevertheless, we are making good progress,” he said. Police said the latest body was found near where two others had been recovered, but they gave no further details. The teams, backed up by sniffer dogs, helicopters and drones, have now found three bodies Sunday, one on Saturday and three on Friday. Three of the victims, two men and a woman, have been identified as Eirik Gronolen, 31, Lisbeth Neraas, 54 and Bjorn-Ivar Grymyr Jansen, 40. But police have published the names of all 10 people, including a 2-year-old and a 13-year-old, who went missing Wednesday. Ten people were also injured in the landslide, including one seriously who was transferred to Oslo for treatment. About 1,000 people of the town’s population of 5,000 have been evacuated, because of fears for the safety of their homes as the land continues to move. “It is a completely surreal and terrible situation,” one of the evacuees, Olav Gjerdingen, told AFP, adding that his family were sheltering at a hotel. The rescuers received a visit Sunday from King Harald, his wife, Sonja, and Crown Prince Haakon, who lit candles for the victims in a local church. “I’m having trouble finding something to say, because it’s absolutely horrible,” the king said after the visit. “This terrible event impacts us all. I sympathize with you who are beginning the new year with sadness and uncertainty,” he said in a televised statement. The authorities have banned all aircraft from the disaster area until Monday afternoon while they conduct aerial searches. “We are searching where we believe we might still find survivors,” said the head of the team of firefighters, Kenneth Wangen, adding that the search zone had been expanded. The rescue teams, who are also seeking to save family pets, were digging channels in the ground to evacuate casualties. Some local people have lit candles near the perimeter of the disaster site in tribute to the victims.

Spanish-flagged Boat Rescues 265 Migrants in Mediterranean

A Spanish-flagged humanitarian ship on Sunday was seeking a port of safety for 265 migrants its crew rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in the last few days. The Open Arms charity tweeted that its vessel on Saturday had safely brought aboard 96 migrants who had been adrift in a wooden boat with without life vests in international waters. It said the passengers, most of them from Eritrea, included two women and 17 minors and were suffering from hypothermia.  In a separate operation two days before that rescue, Open Arms took aboard 169 migrants, who had departed Libyan shores, where many human traffickers are based.  The traffickers launch vessels, many of them flimsy rubber dinghies or rickety fishing boats, crowded with migrants who hope to reach European shores to seek asylum.  Some are fleeing conflict or persecution, but many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have been rescued at sea in recent years are fleeing poverty and thus are denied asylum by European Union countries.  Italy and fellow EU nation Malta have often refused docking permission to the humanitarian rescue boats, contending that most migrants want to reach jobs or relatives in northern Europe. Italian and Maltese government authorities have insisted other European nations do their share.  

Johnson: Scotland Must Wait a Generation for New Vote

Another Scottish independence referendum should not take place for a generation, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday, as Scotland’s leader renewed calls for a fresh vote in the wake of Brexit.   “Referendums in my experience, direct experience, in this country are not particularly jolly events,” the prime minister told BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show.”   “They don’t have a notably unifying force in the national mood, they should be only once in a generation.”   Scotland voted to remain part of the United Kingdom in 2014.   FILE – In this Feb. 10, 2020, file photo, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks during an event at the European Policy Center in Brussels.Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon at the time called it a once-in-a-generation vote, but now argues that Britain’s departure from the European Union, which a majority of Scots opposed, has changed the game.   Recent polls have shown consistent support for independence, boosted by rows between London and the devolved governments over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.   “For too long, successive U.K. governments have taken Scotland in the wrong direction, culminating in Brexit. It’s no wonder so many people in Scotland have had enough,” she wrote on her party’s website on Saturday.   “We didn’t want to leave and we hope to join you again soon as an equal partner,” she added, in a message to the EU.   Johnson has ruled out holding another vote, but Sturgeon will likely claim a mandate and heap pressure on the prime minister should her party perform well in upcoming local elections.   When asked why it was fair to hold a referendum on EU membership but not another on Scottish independence, Johnson told Marr: “The difference is we had a [European] referendum in 1975 and we then had another one in 2016.   That seems to be about the right sort of gap.”  

Pope Criticizes People Going on Holiday to Flee COVID Lockdowns

Pope Francis condemned on Sunday people who had gone abroad on holiday to escape coronavirus lockdowns, saying they needed to show greater awareness of the suffering of others.Speaking after his weekly noon blessing, Francis said he had read newspaper reports of people catching flights to flee government curbs and seek fun elsewhere.”They didn’t think about those who were staying at home, of the economic problems of many people who have been hit hard by the lockdown, of the sick people. (They thought) only about going on holiday and having fun,” the pope said.”This really saddened me,” he said in a video address from the library of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.The traditional Angelus blessing is normally given from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, but it was moved indoors to prevent any crowds gathering and limit the spread of COVID-19.”We don’t know what 2021 will reserve for us, but what all of us can do together is make a bit more of an effort to take care of each other. There is the temptation to take care only of our own interests,” he added.Many countries have imposed strict restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which has killed more than 84 million people worldwide, according to the latest Reuters tally.
 

Fifth Body Found in Norway Mudslide; 5 Still Missing

Rescue workers have uncovered a fifth body four days after a landslide buried homes near Norway’s capital, police said Sunday, as the search goes on for five people still missing.The tragedy occurred in the early hours of Wednesday when houses were destroyed and shifted hundreds of meters under a torrent of mud at the village of Ask, 25 kilometers northeast of Oslo.”Just before 6 a.m. a deceased person was found,” a police statement said.The discovery of a fourth body was made Saturday after three were recovered the day before at the bleak, snow-covered scene at Ask, in Gjerdrum municipality.Police on Saturday identified the body of the first person found on Friday as 31-year-old Eirik GrÃnolen.The identities of the four other dead have not been released.But police on Friday published a list of the names of all the eight adults, a 2-year-old and a 13-year-old child who went missing on Wednesday.Ten people were also injured in the landslide, including one seriously who was transferred to Oslo for treatment.About a thousand people have been evacuated out of a local population of 5,000, because of fears for the safety of their homes as the land continues to move.Search and rescue teams have been using sniffer dogs, helicopters and drones in a bid to find survivors.The search teams were also digging channels in the ground to evacuate casualties.Experts say the disaster was a “quick clay slide” of approximately 300 by 800 meters.Quick clay is found in Norway and Sweden and notorious for collapsing after turning to fluid when overstressed.Prime Minister Erna Solberg described it as one of the biggest landslides the country had ever experienced.The royal court said in a statement that King Harald, his wife, Sonja, and Crown Prince Haakon were to visit the disaster area later Sunday morning.   

Hundreds Charged With COVID Violations After French New Year’s Rave

More than 1,200 revelers were booked for breaking coronavirus restrictions as an illegal rave in northwestern France ended Saturday after more than two days of partying that saw clashes with police.Police had failed to stop the underground event, which drew around 2,500 people from Thursday night to two empty warehouses in Lieuron, south of the city of Rennes in Brittany.But the prosecutor’s office said police had detained two people, neither of whom had any previous convictions, as part of efforts to identify the organizers.They were also searching one address and had so far turned up a sum of money that appeared to be part of the proceeds from the event, and drugs, prosecutor Philippe Astruc said.Police seized the material and booked more than 1,200 for a variety of offenses, he added.Such mass gatherings are banned across France to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and a nationwide 8 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew has been in force across the country.Illegal nightclubsTechno music blared from the warehouses, which had been transformed into illegal nightclubs for partygoers who flocked to the site from across France and even from abroad.The local prefecture said Saturday that the music had been switched off and sound systems dismantled after two nights, and the first revelers began leaving the site before dawn.French Gendarmes evacuate the last partygoers who attended a rave in a disused hangar in Lieuron, south of Rennes, Jan. 2, 2021.Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a tweet that police had seized a truck, sound equipment and generators from the site of the illegal rave.The large police presence at the site had led to the breakup of the event “without violence,” he added.The regional prefect, Emmanuel Berthier, said 800 people had been booked specifically for coronavirus-related offenses such as failing to respect the curfew restrictions or wear masks, or for participating in an illegal assembly.Police had fined several hundred others for use of narcotics, he told reporters.’We had to party’Police on access roads were checking all those leaving the site, on foot or in vehicles, looking for signs of drugs or drug use, an AFP photographer said.Police reinforcements continued to arrive and close off the site Saturday morning, the photographer said.”It’s been a year since we could do anything,” said partygoer Antoine, 24. The salesman was part of a group of five from Brittany who attended the rave.With beers still in their hands, the group members said they “had come to celebrate the 31st here because it was a huge party.””We knew what we were risking. … We had to party. For a year everything has been stuck,” said a 20-year-old waitress in the group.Alexis, 22, a baker, said that “at one point you say to yourself, ‘I am going to force my New Year.’ “He added that the rave had even been reported in The New York Times, saying “it was the biggest party of the year.”‘Lives in danger’French authorities have been worried about mass parties throughout the pandemic, but New Year’s Eve was a particular concern.A man undergoes a rapid antigen test for COVID-19 after the evacuation by French Gendarmes of the last partygoers who attended a rave in a disused hangar in Lieuron, Jan. 2, 2021.Police tried Thursday night to “prevent the event but faced fierce hostility from many partygoers” who set one of their cars on fire and threw bottles and stones, the prefecture said Friday.First aid workers had distributed hand gel and masks at the event to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus.The regional health authority in Brittany noted the “high risk of the spread of COVID-19″ at the event and called on those who took part to undergo coronavirus tests and self-isolate immediately for seven days.The prefecture said in a tweet that a testing center had been set up in a gymnasium in Lieuron.”They have put their lives in danger, their health. They must now protect those around them,” it said.The French government, facing the threat of a new wave of COVID-19 infections, announced Friday that it was extending its overnight curfew by two hours in 15 regions to help combat the virus, starting it at 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m.As of Saturday afternoon, the country’s total number of cases stood at more than 2.7 million, and it was closing in on 65,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.