BEIJING — Chinese authorities on Saturday announced a further easing of COVID-19 curbs with major cities such as Shenzhen and Beijing no longer requiring negative tests to take public transport.

The slight relaxation of testing requirements comes even as daily virus infections reach near-record highs, and follows weekend protests across the country by residents frustrated by the rigid enforcement of anti-virus restrictions that are now entering their fourth year, even as the rest of the world has opened up.

The southern technological manufacturing center of Shenzhen said Saturday that commuters no longer need to show a negative COVID-19 test result to use public transport or when entering pharmacies, parks and tourist attractions.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Meanwhile, the capital Beijing said Friday that negative test results are also no longer required for public transport from Monday. However, a negative result obtained within the past 48 hours is still required to enter venues like shopping malls, which have gradually reopened with many restaurants and eateries providing takeout services.

The requirement has led to complaints from some Beijing residents that even though the city has shut many testing stations, most public venues still require COVID-19 tests.

Despite easing measures, authorities said that the “zero-COVID” strategy — which aims to isolate every infected person — is still in place.

On Saturday, Beijing authorities said that because the current round of COVID-19 was spreading fast, it is necessary to “unswervingly continue to implement normalized social prevention and control measures.”

The government reported 33,018 domestic infections in the past 24 hours, including 29,085 with no symptoms.

As the rest of the world has learned to live with the virus, China remains the only major nation still sticking to a “zero-COVID” strategy. The policy, which has been in place since the pandemic started, led to snap lockdowns and mass testing across the country.

China still imposes mandatory quarantine for incoming travelers even as its infection numbers are low compared to its 1.4 billion population.

The recent demonstrations, the largest and most widely spread in decades, erupted Nov. 25 after a fire in an apartment building in the northwestern city of Urumqi killed at least 10 people.

That set off angry questions online about whether firefighters or victims trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other anti-virus controls. Authorities denied that, but the deaths became a focus of public frustration.

The country saw several days of protests across cities including Shanghai and Beijing, with protesters demanding an easing of COVID-19 curbs. Some demanded Chinese President Xi Jinping step down, an extraordinary show of public dissent in a society over which the ruling Communist Party exercises near total control.

Xi’s government has promised to reduce the cost and disruption of controls but says it will stick with “zero COVID.” Health experts and economists expect it to stay in place at least until mid-2023 and possibly into 2024 while millions of older people are vaccinated in preparation for lifting controls that keep most visitors out of China.

While the government has conceded some mistakes, blamed mainly on overzealous officials, criticism of government policies can result in punishment. Former NBA star Jeremy Lin, who plays for a Chinese team, was recently fined 10,000 yuan ($1,400) for criticizing conditions in team quarantine facilities, according to local media reports.

On Friday, World Health Organization emergencies director Dr. Michael Ryan said that the U.N. agency was “pleased” to see China loosening some of its coronavirus restrictions, saying “it’s really important that governments listen to their people when the people are in pain.”

On Saturday evening in Qatar, the United States could not overcome three ruthless strikes from the Netherlands. The Dutch side, World Cup finalist a dozen years ago and the third place finisher at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, defeated the United States 3-1 in the Round of 16, sending the U.S. home to start thinking ahead to 2026, when North America plays host to the world’s most popular sporting event.

The U.S. has only defeated a European team once—a 3-2 victory over Portugal in 2002—at the World Cup since 1990. The Americans are 1-12-7 against Europe during that stretch.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Christian Pulisic, the United States star who suffered a pelvic contusion on a collision while scoring Team USA’s lone goal on Tuesday in a must-win group stage game against Iran, recovered in time to take the field, as he promised. And he had a golden early chance. Just over two minutes into the match, Tyler Adams lofted a neat ball into the penalty area that Pulisic chased down. But he didn’t get enough on the ball on a close-range shot; Netherlands goalie Andries Noppert nicked away.

Read More: These Are the Countries FIFA Has Ever Banned From the World Cup

In the 10th minute, Memphis Depay of the Netherlands outran Adams, who’s been terrific all tournament, to the top of the box, and punched a pretty cross into the net to give Netherlands a 1-0 lead. Near the end of the first half, Tim Weah fired a laser from a distance that Noppert punched away. Daley Blind, in first half extra time, gave the Netherlands insurance, again making a sleeping U.S. defense play by sneaking into the middle and firing a one-touch shot past Matt Turner to put the Dutch up 2-0.

The U.S. made a sub for the second half, inserting 20-year-old striker Gio Reyna into the lineup for some quick scoring. To the consternation of many pundits and fans, Reyna, who suits up for Borussia Dortmund in Germany, barely played during the Group Stage, just getting a few late minutes against England on November 25. The U.S. applied some early second half pressure, as defenseman Tim Ream got a shot on goal early in the half that a Dutch player had to kick off the line.

The U.S. made two more offensive-minded subs before the 70th minute, sending Brenden Aaronson and Haji Wright into the game. The Wright sub paid off almost immediately: in the 76th minute, he touched a Pulisic cross into the back corner of the net to cut the deficit in half.

Wright’s heroics set up a furious finish. But in the 81st minute, the Netherlands had too much time to operate: Denzel Dumfries snuck behind Ream on the far post, to put a cross into the net and put the U.S. away.

If anything, the game displayed a key difference between a historically strong European side and the upstart U.S. The Netherlands operated with ruthless efficiency, capitalizing on U.S. mistakes with direct offensive sequences that resulted in goals. The Americans have four years to work on their technical ability.

Read More: How to Watch the 2022 World Cup

The United States accomplished its goal at the Qatar World Cup: making it to knockout round. Coach Gregg Berhalter never shied away from those expectations, noting before the tournament that generations are marked by World Cup performance. Past American teams that made it to the knockout round have been admired, others derided. Yes, the U.S. was the second youngest team coming into this World Cup. But it was also historically talented, as this young generation was suiting up for squads like Chelsea and Juventus.

And in 2026, Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Adams, the team captain will be 27. Weah will be 26. Reyna will be 23. All core players in their prime, at a home World Cup. Expectations, correctly, will be raised, and hopes for a longer knock-out state run higher than ever. The Qatar World Cup offered thrilling moments for American soccer. And it could go down as an all-time tuneup.

Title 42, a public health emergency order used to expel asylum-seeking migrants from the U.S., is set to be repealed on Dec. 21, and analysts and border officials predict a surge in border crossings if the policy is lifted.

The pandemic-era ban, which began under former President Donald Trump in 2020 and has continued under Biden, has been a prominent approach to swiftly expel migrants.

Coupled with the sharp increase in border crossings over the past year, some worry that Biden will respond with other harsh legislation that limits transit at the border and asylum-seekers’ rights, especially as a handful of Republican-led states push to extend Title 42.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

“Title 42 was a game changer in terms of the magnitude and the swiftness in which it was applied when people were expelled immediately back to Mexico,” Nicolas Palazzo, a senior attorney at Las Americas, an immigration advocacy group, tells TIME. “There was a lot said about building a wall, and in reality, the most effective wall was Title 42.”

Here’s what to know:

What is the Title 42 border policy?

Title 42 is a federal law enacted as part of the Public Health Service Act of 1944 in order to protect the U.S. from communicable diseases. Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the thinktank, Bipartisan Policy Center, explains that the border-specific policy is an order issued by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to prohibit people’s entry into the country for public health reasons.

“When the CDC believes there’s a public health emergency, they can restrict people who are sick, or ships, boats, railroads or anything else from coming into the United States if they believe that it would further disease in the United States,” Brown tells TIME.

Under Title 42, when border officials deny migrants entry into the country it’s considered expulsion and differs from deportation because the basis for denial stems from public health concerns rather than immigration law.

“It’s interesting because I think most public health experts would tell you that this policy, even from its inception, has done little to prevent the transmission of COVID,” Palazzo says.

“Individuals are apprehended, they enter and then they’re placed in group settings in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody and then expelled back to Mexico or their country of origin. There’s still transmission of COVID in the CBP facilities,” he adds.

Since the policy’s inception, critics have argued that it infringes on asylum-seekers’ rights to access proper legal channels and apply for refuge. In the time since Title 42 was enacted, the policy’s been used to immediately expel more than 73,000 people, according to Syracuse University.

Professionals like Palazzo agree that over the past two-and-a-half years, the ban has impacted Mexicans and other Central American migrants the most, and the majority of individuals expelled at the border are adults traveling alone. Venezuelans were originally exempt from the ban, but an October 2022 agreement changed that.

What has Biden said about Title 42?

The Biden administration has publicly said that it wants to see an end to Title 42 and attempted to strike it down this past spring, but was blocked in court. When a D.C. appeals court ruled that the policy was illegal last month, the Biden administration requested to uphold the policy until December so that it would have ample time to implement new border processing methods.

“There hasn’t seemed to be a lot of major moves to fundamentally change anything about how asylum is processed at the border,” Brown says. “I think that’s going to create problems for the administration in managing the volume that we’re seeing now, the number of people.”

Since the policy was struck down, Biden hasn’t commented on any new solutions to address flaws in immigration at the southern border, which was a platform he campaigned heavily on to reverse stringent Trump policies.

“It is definitely, at least in the short run, going to result in many, many more people being released into the United States to wait in ever-growing backlogs for their asylum claims to happen in immigration court,” Brown says.

Top Biden aides are discussing strict approaches to curb the record-high daily rates of border crossings. One potential option would be to limit allowing in migrants seeking asylum only to those who were already granted safe harbor by another country they came through, like Mexico.

What could happen if Title 42 ended?

The Biden administration predicts that there will be an influx of thousands of migrants attempting to enter the country every day once the Title 42 ban ends. Experts are pessimistic about seeing the progressive immigration reform that Biden campaigned to deliver for asylum-seekers, many of whom escape violence, political instability and economic hardship worsened by the pandemic.

“I think there’s a possibility that Title 42, and it may not be called Title 42, may take on some other name and iteration,” Palazzo says. “We’re talking about an internationally recognized human right to seek asylum so it’s shameful that politics gets mixed into this, but that’s the reality.”

A coalition of 15 states, all but one Republican-led, have brought motions to uphold Title 42 as a border policy. The states, Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, argue that even those not touching a border would be harmed by the financial burden of an influx of migrants, in addition to the health risks.

HOUSTON — A 33-year-old man was arrested on a murder charge in the shooting of rapper Takeoff, who police on Friday said was an “innocent bystander” when he was struck by gunfire outside a Houston bowling alley.

Patrick Xavier Clark was taken into custody peacefully Thursday night, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said. Clark’s arrest came one day after another man was charged in connection with the Nov. 1 shooting, which authorities said followed a dispute over a dice game and wounded two other people.

Clark was being held in jail Friday awaiting a bond hearing. Court records do not list an attorney who could speak for him, but indicate he was arrested as he was preparing to leave the country for Mexico.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Born Kirsnick Khari Ball, Takeoff was the youngest member of Migos, the Grammy-nominated rap trio from suburban Atlanta that also featured his uncle Quavo and cousin Offset.

The 28-year-old musician was shot outside the downtown bowling alley at around 2:30 a.m., when police said a dispute erupted as more than 30 people were leaving a private party there. Police previously said another man and a woman suffered non-life-threatening gunshot injuries, and that at least two people opened fired.

Police Sgt. Michael Burrow said during a Friday news conference that the gunfire followed a disagreement over a “lucrative” game of dice, but that Takeoff was not involved and was “an innocent bystander.” Finner said police do not know whether Clark was invited to the party or if he knew Takeoff.

Every person on the scene left without talking to police, Burrow said. Some of those people have since been located by the authorities, who have also worked to piece together events with ballistics, video and audio recordings, according to Burrow. He said investigators are still trying to track down witnesses.

“We will be looking to find you,” he said. “It will be easier if you come find us.”

On Wednesday, authorities announced the arrest of Cameron Joshuain connection to the shooting. Joshua was charged with illegally having a gun at the time Takeoff was shot, but prosecutors said the 22-year-old is not believed to have fired the weapon. Christopher Downey, Joshua’s attorney, told reporters that he has not seen anything to suggest that his client was involved in Takeoff’s killing.

Burrow said that investigators believe it was Clark’s gunfire that killed the rapper.

Prosecutors on Friday asked a court to set Clark’s bond at $1 million, arguing he is a flight risk. After Takeoff’s shooting, Clark applied for an expedited passport by submitting the itinerary for an “imminent” flight to Mexico, according to court records. They say he was arrested the day he received the passport and was in possession of a “large amount” of cash.

Fans and other performers, including Drake and Justin Bieber, celebrated Takeoff’s musical legacy in a memorial service last month in Atlanta.

Migos’ record label, Quality Control, mourned Takeoff’s death in a statement posted on Instagram that attributed it to “senseless violence.”

Migos first broke through with the massive hit “Versace” in 2013. They had four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, though Takeoff was not on their multi-week No. 1 hit “Bad and Boujee,” featuring Lil Uzi Vert. They put out a trilogy of albums called “Culture,” “Culture II” and “Culture III,” with the first two hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Takeoff never released a solo record, but in the weeks before his death he and Quavo put out “Only Built for Infinity Links.” Takeoff hoped the joint album would build respect for his lyrical abilities, telling the “Drink Champs” podcast, “It’s time to give me my flowers.”

As Clark’s arrest was announced Friday, Takeoff’s voice could again be heard, featured on “Feel The Fiyaaaah” alongside A$AP Rocky on Metro Boomin’s album released that day, “Heroes and Villains.”

He sang, “It’s quiet right now in the streets.”

Source link

The post Russian troops destroy agricultural warehouses in Sumy region appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.

Ukraine has detained eight people over the theft from a wall in the Kyiv suburbs of a mural painted by elusive British street artist Banksy, the authorities said.

The stencil image of a person in a nightgown and gas mask holding a fire extinguisher next to the charred remains of a window in the town of Gostomel went missing on Friday, they said.

“A group of people tried to steal a Banksy mural. They cut out the work from the wall of a house destroyed by the Russians,” Kyiv governor Oleksiy Kuleba said in a post on Telegram late Friday.

He attached the image of a gaping hole in the wall where the image once stood.

“Several people were detained on the spot,” he said. “The image is in good condition and in the hands of the authorities.”

Other works in the area thought also to be the work of Banksy are under police protection, he said.

Kyiv police chief Andriy Nebitov said “eight people had been identified” as possibly involved, and a preliminary inquiry had been opened into the matter.

“All were aged between 27 and 60 years old. They are residents of Kyiv and Cherkasy” some 200 km (120 miles) southeast of the capital, he said.

Last month, Banksy posted an image of the stencil of a gymnast performing a handstand on the wall of a wrecked building in Borodyanka, another suburb of the capital.

He then posted a video of several more of his artworks, including the person in a gas mask holding the fire extinguisher.

Others included the portraits of a bearded man scrubbing up in a bathtub, and a young boy in a karate outfit slamming his adult opponent to the ground.

Together with towns such as Bucha and Irpin, Borodyanka and Gostomel were severely hit by Russian bombardment after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

The post Ukraine Detains 8 Over Banksy Mural Theft appeared first on Kyiv Post.

The Netherlands became the first country into the World Cup quarter-finals as they beat the United States 3-1 at the Khalifa International Stadium on Saturday.

A 10th-minute effort by Memphis Depay and another from Daley Blind with the last kick of the first half paved the way for the Dutch to set up a last eight clash with either Argentina or Australia, who were playing later.

Substitute Haji Wright scrambled in a reply for the United States in the 76th minute to give the Americans hope but Denzel Dumfries’s volley sealed a seventh quarter-final appearance for the Dutch.

Louis van Gaal’s Dutch side grabbed the lead with their first attack when a slick move ended with Dumfries cutting a perfect pass back for Barcelona forward Depay to stroke home.

Dumfries then played a carbon copy ball for Blind to make it 2-0 and put his side in cruise control.

Wright bundled home from a Christian Pulisic cross but Dumfries crowned a great display to finish off the Americans.

Source link

The post Russia reaped $1B of wheat in occupied Ukraine appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.