UK tightens travel rules among omicron virus variant concerns
LONDON — Britain’s government tightened travel restrictions Saturday amid concerns about the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant, saying all travelers arriving in England will need to take a COVID-19 test before they board their flight.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the new rules will apply from 4 a.m. London time Tuesday.
“In light of the most recent data, we are taking further action to slow the incursion of the omicron variant,” he said in a tweet.
Javid also added Nigeria to the U.K.’s travel “red list,” which means that arrivals from there will be banned except for U.K. and Irish residents, and those travelers must isolate in designated quarantine facilities. He said there was a “significant number” of omicron cases linked to travel with Nigeria, with 27 cases recorded in England.
Karen Dee, the chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, said the new measures will be a “major deterrent” to travel, just as airports and the travel industry were hoping for a small uplift over the festive season.
“This is a devastating blow for aviation and tourism,” she said.
Authorities recorded another 42,848 confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.K. as of Saturday, with 127 more deaths. With over 145,000 COVID-19 deaths in the pandemic, Britain has the second-highest virus death toll in Europe after Russia.
Indonesia volcano: At least one person was killed and 41 suffered severe burns after the Semeru volcano in Indonesia’s East Java province erupted on Saturday, officials said.
The eruption sent residents fleeing as a huge column of smoke blanketed nearby villages in darkness, turning day into night.
In addition to one known death and injuries, two people were missing and eight stone miners were trapped following the eruption, Indah Masdar, deputy district chief of Lumajang, said in a televised news conference.
“We hope that those trapped can be rescued soon. Their families are crying and anxious about their fate,” she said.
Rescue efforts were hampered by thick mud and the collapse of a major bridge linking two districts, said Suharyanto, the head of the National Disaster Management Agency.
Confederate symbols in jury room:
A Tennessee appeals court has granted a new trial for a Black man who was convicted of aggravated assault by an all-white jury that deliberated in a room containing Confederate symbols.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Friday that Tim Gilbert deserves a new trial on charges stemming from a December 2018 altercation, The Tennessean reported.
Gilbert was sentenced to six years in prison after his conviction on charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, unlawful possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and resisting arrest.
His attorney appealed, arguing that Gilbert’s right to a fair trial was violated because the jury deliberated in a room adorned with an antique Confederate flag and a portrait of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The appeal court’s ruling
came after a circuit court judge denied Gilbert’s motion for a new trial.
The appeals court ruling said that allowing the jury to decide whether Gilbert was innocent or guilty in a room at the Giles County Courthouse maintained by the United Daughters of the Confederacy “exposed the jury to extraneous prejudicial information and violated his constitutional rights to a fair trial conducted by an impartial jury.”
Israeli police shoot Palestinian:
Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian after he stabbed and wounded an ultra-Orthodox Jew on Saturday near Damascus Gate just outside Jerusalem’s Old City, a tense and crowded area that is often the scene of demonstrations and clashes.
A widely circulated video shot by a bystander appeared to show an officer from Israel’s paramilitary Border Police shooting the attacker when he was already lying on the ground, and another
appeared to show police with guns drawn preventing medics from reaching him, prompting calls for an investigation into possible excessive use of force.
The Magen David Adom emergency service said it treated an ultra-Orthodox man in his 20s who was stabbed, saying he was in moderate to severe condition.
Israeli police released surveillance video in which the attacker can be seen stabbing the Jewish man and then trying to stab a Border Police officer before being shot and falling to the ground. Police identified the attacker as a 25-year-old from Salfit, in the occupied West Bank.
“The awareness and quick reactions by the police brought about the neutralization of the terrorist,” police said in a statement. Large numbers of security forces were deployed to the area, where they briefly clashed with a crowd of young Palestinians before
dispersing them with tear gas and stun grenades.
Damascus Gate was the epicenter of protests and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police last spring, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The unrest spread to other parts of the city, including a nearby holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims, eventually helping to ignite the 11-day Gaza war.
Retail theft ring: Members of a Bay Area theft ring believed to have stolen merchandise worth millions of dollars from retailers have pleaded guilty in the case and its leader is expected to be sentenced to several years in prison, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Friday.
The admissions by Danny Louis Drago, the purported head of the ring, and four others came two years after authorities opened an investigation into the operation, in which the group resold products stolen from Target,
CVS and other stores, officials said.
Bonta’s warning came amid growing concern over a recent surge in thefts and robberies involving large groups of people who mobbed luxury stores in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Trump media venture: Donald Trump’s new social media company and its special purpose acquisition company partner say the partner has agreements for $1 billion in capital from institutional investors.
The former president launched his new company, Trump Media & Technology Group, in October. He unveiled plans for a new messaging app called “Truth Social” to rival Twitter and the other social media platforms that banned him following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
TMTG’s plan is to become a publicly listed company through a merger with the publicly traded Digital World Acquisition Corp.