Rafa Benitez abruptly left as coach of Chinese Super League side Dalian Pro on Saturday, saying it was for family reasons because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hong Kong placed 10,000 residents in one of its most crowded districts under Covid-19 lockdown on Saturday, as the city leader said officials would investigate how to avoid a repeat of people fleeing in advance of any future confinement orders.Officials from 4am sealed off about 200 buildings in Yau Tsim Mong district and deployed around 3,000 government workers to carry out emergency testing in a drastic bid to stem the alarming spread of Covid-19 in the city.News of the first lockdown under legislation introduced last month was leaked ahead of its roll-out, offering residents the opportunity to escape the clutches of the city’s toughest pandemic restrictions yet.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.Residents who were unwittingly outside the area when it was cut off found themselves separated from their families, before ministers ordered frontline workers to allow households to reunite.Others left their homes to be met with police cordons and patrols, as well as their route to work or other activities blocked.The area under lockdown, which measures nearly 500,000 sq ft and overlaps a designated mandatory-testing zone, borders Kansu Street to the north and Nanking Street in the south. The eastern and western boundaries are Woosung Street and Battery Street, respectively.During a visit to the lockdown scene in Jordan on Saturday afternoon, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor admitted there was room for improvement, while noting it was the first time the government had taken this form of action under legislation approved last December.She said the government would look into the issue of residents having advanced warning of the lockdown, while acknowledging it was difficult to ensure the information would not be leaked because 3,000 workers were involved in the operation.“We need to study seriously whether we should take action and make an announcement earlier once the media has exposed the plan,” Lam said.“If the residents knew the operation only lasted 48 hours and that the government would provide them food packs and a hotline, maybe they would be less anxious and would not have fled the area.”Lam also said the operation was nothing like the “lockdowns” imposed in mainland China, referring to the scheme as a “restriction testing declaration” and adding it would be lifted once screening was completed.She stressed she was not under pressure from Beijing to impose the measure.The chief executive also sidestepped questions on whether affected residents would be offered compensation, as some had demanded since they could not go to work. Lam would only say they had been provided with food packs and a hotline to seek help.“For example, we know the residents being affected are not allowed to leave their homes for up to 48 hours. So what the government has done is we provide them with food packs, which we believe should be able to support them for the next two days,” Lam said.She said the lockdown was necessary after 162 confirmed cases were found in 56 housing blocks in the Jordan area between January 1 and January 20.Residents who left the area ahead of the curbs were still legally bound to take a Covid-19 test, Lam pointed out.Responding to criticism over inconvenience for residents, she said the government aimed to finish the exercise by Monday morning to minimise the impact.By 1pm, 3,000 people residing in more than 50 buildings in the area had been screened, the government said.The government has ordered everyone in the area to get tested by the end of Saturday, as it aimed to allow residents to leave the sealed-off section for work from about 6am on Monday.Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui Ying-wai said 10,000 residents in the locked-down section were to be tested, with 3,000 civil servants deployed for the mission.Of those, more than 1,700 were police or other disciplined services officers, according to sources. What lockdown means for thousands in Hong Kong, who it affectsTsui said the Home Affairs Department had established resting places for non-residents who were trapped inside the zone. He discouraged outsiders from delivering supplies of any kind to those inside the area.Amid complaints that food would go stale and customer orders were being abandoned, the minister stopped short of committing to compensating affected businesses in the neighbourhood.Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee said those who had been in the area for more than two hours in the past 14 days were also required to get tested by the end of Saturday, even if they were no longer inside the zone.Residents outside the area but wishing to go home should be allowed to do so, she clarified. Hong Kong to lock down 150 residential buildings in a first for city’s Covid-19 battleShe did not rule out a second batch of testing for the neighbourhood, subject to the first round’s results.Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing said nearly 90 per cent of sewage samples collected from a block of about 40 buildings in the area had returned positive readings for the coronavirus.Also on Saturday, Hong Kong surpassed 10,000 coronavirus cases on the anniversary of the city’s first infections.Of the 81 new cases, 21 were from Yau Tsim Mong.Looking back at the government’s pandemic battle over the past year, Lam said on Saturday: “There is always room for perfection, especially on [battling] a virus that everyone is unfamiliar with.Under the lockdown rules, everyone within the restricted area must get screened for Covid-19 at 51 mobile testing facilities stationed locally before the end of Saturday.No one can leave the zone until the restrictions are lifted.Just three types of people will be allowed to enter the area: residents, relatives staying in the same flat as those in need of care, and staff members in urgently needed sectors such as elderly care.After police cordoned off the area before dawn, officers in protective gear from other disciplined services – customs, immigration, fire services and correctional services – conducted door-to-door inspections, alongside health officers.Some officers also waited at the entrances of cordoned-off residential buildings. Police officers stood guard around the enclosed areas.Police arrested a man who grew irritated when officers would not allow him to enter the area and he began to struggle with them. The 47-year-old man arrived at the junction of Shanghai Street and Nanking Street shortly before 10am, saying he wanted to go home.Officers stopped him at the cordon line and told him that he would not be allowed to leave the area for 48 hours after entering.The man became emotional and allegedly punched an officer, who suffered a minor injury and was sent to hospital for treatment.After the arrest, the man was allowed to enter the area.Lou Hung-kau, who lives in the neighbourhood where he also runs a cha chaan teng, berated the government for locking down the area without warning food businesses.The 66-year-old said: “Shutting the area down was not a problem, but the government should have informed store owners in the area in advance so that we don’t prepare the food. Now the food will go stale.”Grocery store owner Clara Choi could not go to her shop because she did not live in the area, which made her worry about a cat she kept on the premises.On being refused access to tend to the animal, she said: “It’s barbaric.” Hits and misses fighting Covid-19 in roller-coaster year for Hong KongAmid some confusion over the rules, Woosung Street resident Norisa Ale found out on Saturday she would be separated from her husband for at least two days, having gone out for a walk in the small hours and returning after the restrictions were imposed.“I came back at 5am and the police officers said I could not go inside even though I told him I lived here,” she said.Ale waved at her husband as they spoke over the phone. She said she would ask a few friends for somewhere to stay.“This is about safety for everyone,” she said, adding she could accept the arrangement.Another resident, confined to the restricted zone, had to call his boss to tell him he could not go to work.“I went to bed really early last night, at around 9pm, so I only found out about it this morning,” he said.The man said he was a little worried about his food supply and work.Luk Chung-hung, a labour sector lawmaker with the pro-government Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, called on the government to offer compensation, such as a subsidy ranging between HK$500 (US$64) and HK$1,000 for each worker who was unable to get to his or her job as a result of the lockdown.He questioned why the lockdown could not be done within 24 hours, pointing to authorities in Hubei province on the mainland who tested about 10 million people within several days.For inquiries relating to the new restrictions, call the Home Affairs Department on 2399 6469 and 2399 2319. The department has also set up a hotline for members of ethnic minority communities on 3755 6816.Additional reporting by Ethan Paul and Rachel YeoMore from South China Morning Post: * Hong Kong lockdown: anger and confusion over looming Covid-19 restrictions, but to some, move is ‘better than nothing’ * Hong Kong lockdown: what thousands of residents trapped inside restricted zone can and cannot do after Covid-19 spike * Hong Kong fourth wave: city confirms 70 new coronavirus cases, Yau Tsim Mong outbreak worsensThis article Hong Kong lockdown: 10,000 confined for massive Covid-19 testing operation in Yau Tsim Mong, as fleeing residents prompt implementation review first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
The Ministry of Health has confirmed 48 new cases of COVID-19 infection – all imported – in Singapore as of noon on Sunday (24 January).
The US government’s top infectious disease expert said on Friday that former president Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic “very likely” cost lives.“I don’t want that job to be a sound bite but … you could see that when you’re starting to go down paths that are not based on any science at all, and we’ve been there before, I don’t want to rehash it, that is not helpful at all,” Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN in an interview.Fauci, made a senior adviser to President Joe Biden on Covid-19, blamed a lack of coordination between federal and state authorities for allowing infections to spread throughout the country. The US has already registered more than 400,000 coronavirus-related deaths and is on track to exceed half a million by the end of February.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, whom the Senate confirmed on Friday, made pandemic assistance his first priority to address the mounting loss of life.“What we saw a lot of was saying, ‘OK, states, do what you want to do,’ and states were doing things that clearly were not the right direction,” Fauci said.Many US states, he added, “want to have the capability of making their own decisions, but they also need resources, and they need help”.Fauci spoke as US health authorities confront thousands of Covid-19 deaths a day and face the possibility that the numbers will escalate as new, possibly more contagious, variants of the coronavirus that causes the disease emerge in the country.Throughout the pandemic, Trump, who left office on Wednesday, played down its severity and often insisted that the contagion was dying out. He refused to promote mask-wearing, which Biden addressed in his first full day in office with an executive order requiring the wearing of masks in all federal buildings and on public transport. Dr Fauci’s 2021 Covid-19 forecast for AmericaTrump also promoted unproven scientific remedies, including the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.In a bid to speed up vaccination in the US, Biden plans to mobilise the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard to set up as many as 100 sites around the country within the next month to deliver the shots, The Washington Post reported, citing a draft document by the administration.US vaccinations started nearly six weeks ago, but fewer than six doses have been administered for every 100 people as of Friday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.“We must help the federal government move further and faster to eradicate the devastating effects of the coronavirus,” Austin said in his “Day One Message to the Force”.“To that end, we will also do everything we can to vaccinate and care for our workforce and to look for meaningful ways to alleviate the pressure this pandemic has exerted on you and your families.”In another break from Trump, Fauci also said this week that the US would not withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN’s health agency, as the Trump administration had intended.Trump and many of his allies in Congress had accused the WHO of bungling its early response to the outbreak because it was too deferential to China.More from South China Morning Post: * Joe Biden orders masks, travel quarantine in new US war on Covid-19 * Dr Anthony Fauci ‘sure’ coronavirus vaccinations will be mandatory in hospitals and schools * Trump: Americans will develop ‘herd mentality’, coronavirus vaccine weeks away * Joe Biden plans immediate executive actions as Donald Trump era endsThis article Top US medical adviser Fauci says Trump’s coronavirus approach ‘very likely’ cost lives first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
As the Chinese saying goes: for every measure from above, there will always be a countermeasure from below.That may explain why, for many years, despite local governments’ bests effort to cool off the overheating property market in major Chinese cities, resourceful residents have always found a way to beat the system.One example is the administrative orders limiting the number of homes one family can own, which varying from city to city. In Shanghai, for instance, a person with a hukou, or permanent residency, can buy two properties at most, and those without can only buy one.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.But no matter what the quota is, there has been one glaring loophole: to become eligible for a first-time homebuyer scheme, many couples divorce, which allows the spouse without any property to snap up a new one, before remarrying.Now the authorities are striking back.The government in Shanghai, China’s biggest city, where home prices recently set records, has rolled out a new policy to curb the use of sham divorces to cash in on the property market. Guangzhou clamps down on homeowners colluding to inflate home pricesAccording to a directive issued by the Shanghai government, from January 22, the home ownership history of would-be homebuyers who have been divorced for less than three years will be subject to scrutiny.In practice, this means the newly divorced will not be allocated a home purchase quota and cannot benefit from preferential mortgage rates offered to first-time buyers.In the past, once someone divorced, the home-ownership and mortgage records from their previous marriage was expunged. Many couples have taken advantage of this rule and resorted to fake divorces so they can buy an extra home.Over the past two decades, home ownership has become the most important investment for Chinese families, and this trick – and the increase in demand it generated – helped fuel soaring home prices in China.Shanghai’s latest directive, which includes a number of other measures to stabilise the property market, is in line with the principle advanced several years ago by Chinese President Xi Jinping that “homes are for people to live in, not for speculation”.In Beijing, people are known to have married and divorced multiple times just to get vehicle licence plates, as the government has strict limits on the number of licence plates it issues to reduce smog and congestion in the Chinese capital.A driver who needs a plate marries someone who owns one, has it transferred to their name, and the two then divorce. Local police has been cracking down on this illegal trade. It detained 166 people in November.Amid rapid urbanisation, fake marriages have become a common as a way to cheat the system. Couples, for instance, get more financial compensation than sole owners if the residential building they live in is earmarked for demolition.Last year, police in Zhejiang province, eastern China, arrested 11 members of an extended family who married and divorced each other 23 times in a fortnight to cash in on an urban renewal project when their village was earmarked for demolition. This entitled 13 more of them to claim a government payout than woud otherwise have been the case.More from South China Morning Post: * Shanghai changes rules to stop couples from faking divorces as they vie for less up-front money to buy residential property * More Chinese cities ease residency rules to boost local economies * China’s average home price rises for 33rd month, defying bank regulator’s warning of ‘grey rhino’ spillover risksThis article Sham marriages and divorces are common in China to beat limits on home and vehicle ownership – no wonder Shanghai has cracked down first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
Manchester City were given a huge FA Cup scare by fourth-tier Cheltenham before a late blitz gave them a 3-1 win on Saturday after Southampton dumped holders Arsenal out of the competition.
An 18-year-old woman has been arrested for her suspected involvement in cheating cases in which victims paid for "nude materials" they did not receive.
These four companies (including two banks) are starting 2021 well. The post 4 Growth Stocks In Singapore [24 Jan 2021] AEM Holdings (SGX: AWX); Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (SGX: BS6); DBS Group Holdings (SGX: D05); OCBC (SGX: O39) appeared first on DollarsAndSense.sg.
Camped out in bare offices, President Joe Biden's new White House team has spent its first three days scrambling for things like binder clips and IT support -- oh, and trying to save the country from multiple crises.
The tiny clinking vials supervised by silent PPE-wearing technicians belie the excitement inside the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, a major player in the fight against coronavirus.
Canada said its officials have met online with former diplomat Michael Kovrig, who has been held in China for more than two years in a case related to an executive of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. Canada’s Foreign Ministry said officials led by Ambassador Dominic Barton were given “on-site virtual consular access” to Kovrig on Thursday. Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor have been confined since Dec. 10, 2018, just days after Canada detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecommunications equipment giant.
The success of the French crime series "Lupin" on Netflix, riding on the heels of hit Spanish show "Money Heist," may hint at a waning of US dominance on the small screen as ambitious European, Latin American and South Korean players kick down the doors on streaming platforms.
Foreign forces ignored a deadline to pull out of Libya as scheduled Saturday under a UN-backed ceasefire deal, highlighting the fragility of peace efforts after a decade of conflict.
When Mike Lindell, better known to TV viewers as the MyPillow Guy, went to the White House last week to try to persuade President Donald Trump to keep pushing bogus theories about the election, he came away disappointed. Unexpectedly, Trump passed him — and his claims about sabotaged voting machines — off on staffers. The president has told him before that he would back his bid for governor of Minnesota, Lindell told The Associated Press.
A major British doctors' group says the U.K. government should “urgently review” its decision to give people a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine up to 12 weeks after the first, rather than the shorter gap recommended by the manufacturer and the World Health Organization. The U.K., which has Europe’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak, adopted the policy in order to give as many people as possible a first dose of vaccine quickly. AstraZeneca has said it believes a first dose of its vaccine offers protection after 12 weeks, but Pfizer says it has not tested the efficacy of its jab after such a long gap.
India's huge coronavirus vaccination drive is behind schedule, with a third of recipients not showing up for appointments because of safety fears, technical glitches and a belief that the pandemic is ending.
"I'm an American!" a young Russian under the username Neurolera exclaims in English on the popular video-sharing app TikTok as she explains how to impersonate a tourist to avoid arrest at a street demonstration.
The iconic talk show host Larry King, one of the most recognizable figures on US television as he interviewed everyone who was anyone over a career spanning 60 years, died Saturday at the age of 87.
From the upcoming impeachment trial of Donald Trump to the massive coronavirus stimulus package, a power-sharing impasse and a brewing showdown over the filibuster, Chuck Schumer faces the challenge of his political career as US Senate majority leader.
Western Sahara's pro-independence Polisario Front bombarded the Guerguerat buffer zone under Moroccan control in the far south of the desert territory in an overnight attack Rabat described as part of a "propaganda war".
