AUSTRALIA

'Dangerous and fast-changing situation' as WA's Kimberley region smashed by once-in-a-century floods

Homes have been inundated and residents evacuated as a record-breaking flood hits a remote town in WA's Kimberley region.

The Martuwarra (Fitzroy) River has reached record-breaking flood levels. 

Source: Facebook / DFES

THAT'S A RABBIT! AND A COW, NORMALLY IT'S CARS OR TRUCKS

KEY POINTSAuthorities warned the Fitzroy River level was still rising early on Wednesday morning ahead of a possible peak of 15.7 metres.
The Albanese government approved a WA request for Australian Defence Force aircraft and personnel to help evacuate residents from Fitzroy Crossing.
Defence personnel have been called in to help evacuate people isolated during once-in-a-century flooding hitting a remote town in Western Australia's Kimberley region.

Homes have been inundated by floodwater in Fitzroy Crossing - home to about 1200 people - and the Great Northern Highway is cut in both directions as some residents are airlifted 400km to Broome by helicopter.

The fast-flowing waters also washed away part of a major bridge as the region is swamped in record flooding of the Fitzroy River.

"This is a dangerous and fast-changing situation," WA Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson told reporters on Tuesday.

"We have not seen rain like this for at least a hundred years so it's kind of shocking to see the water as high as it is."

Authorities warned the Fitzroy River level was still rising early on Wednesday morning ahead of a possible peak of 15.7 metres, smashing previous records for Fitzroy Crossing.

Federal Emergency Services Minister Murray Watt said the Albanese government approved a WA request for Australian Defence Force aircraft and personnel to help evacuate residents from Fitzroy Crossing and nearby areas.

Downstream at Noonkanbah, major flooding was also likely.

Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm warned residents in the communities of Willare and Noonkanbah on Tuesday they would be inundated in the next 24 to 48 hours.

"People in those areas need to get to higher ground," he said.

He said roads had been cut and it was too late to leave as the region faced "at least a one-in-100-year" flood event.



The rain is coming from ex-tropical cyclone Ellie, which has dumped between 200mm and 600mm since Saturday and is predicted to deliver further widespread heavy falls into the week.

The weather system has been moving slowly towards the coast and was located immediately east of Broome on Wednesday morning, lashing the region with strong winds and intense downpours.

The Bureau of Meteorology said heavy rainfall that might lead to dangerous flash flooding was expected as the storm delivered falls of up to 300mm within a 24-hour period.

The airport runway at Broome was closed due to the water levels after the town was hit with more than 120mm of rain between Tuesday morning and early Wednesday.

Meanwhile, major flooding continues in the western NSW town of Menindee, where the Darling River was holding steady at around 10.2m on Tuesday.

The bureau warned further rises to 10.7m were possible from Thursday, above the 1976 flood record of 10.47m.

"At present, 10 properties have been evacuated, while 20 other property owners have decided to shelter in place," NSW SES incident controller Gavin Arnold said.

An evacuation order remains in place for properties expected to be impacted by flooding.

Has the ‘missing link’ microorganism been detected?


ByDr. Tim Sandle
Published January 1, 2023

Cryo-electron tomography of a newly cultured Asgard archaeon. 

(© Margot Riggi, The Animation Lab, University of Utah, for press purposes)

Microbiologists are researching the so-called ‘missing link’ microorganism, with the aim of understanding both microbial and more complex life-forms a little better. This is centred on the question: “How did the complex organisms on Earth arise?” This represents one of the big open questions in biology.

University of Vienna scientists are examining an archaeon and are characterizing it precisely to determine the connection with other cells relating to plants and animals. Although they resemble bacteria microscopically, archaea possess genes and several metabolic pathways that are more closely related to those of eukaryotes. Eukaryotes include animals, plants, and fungi. These cells are larger and more complex than the cells of bacteria and archaea.

The organism is a member of the so-called Asgard archaea (the proposed phylum Asgardarchaeota) and it exhibits unique cellular characteristics to the extent that it may represent an evolutionary ‘missing link’ to more complex life forms.

The Asgardarchaeota is a proposed superphylum consisting of a group of archaea, based on the theory that eukaryotic cells (from which plants and animals are composed) emerged within the Asgard, in a branch containing the Heimdallarchaeota.

The member of the Asgard archaea exhibits unique cellular characteristics and may represent an evolutionary “missing link”. It has been named Lokiarchaeum ossiferum (a further od to Scandinavia mythology) and it was isolated from marine sediments on the coast of Piran, Slovenia, as well as from bank sediments of the Danube in Austria.

It is theorized that archaea and bacteria played a central role in the evolution of eukaryotes. A eukaryotic primordial cell is believed to have evolved from a close symbiosis between archaea and bacteria about two billion years ago.

Members of the so-called “Asgard archaea” represent the closest relatives of eukaryotes and scientific research as focused on finding potential species that can explain the evolutionary bridge.

The main challenge was with cultivating the organism. This required a highly enriched environment. Once this was completed the researchers could undertake a detailed examination of the cells by cryo-electron microscopy to take pictures of shock-frozen cells. This technique provided a three-dimensional insight into the internal cellular structures.

Of particular interest wee the round cell bodies contained thin, very long cell extensions. These tentacle-like structures sometimes can connect different cell bodies with each other. The cells also contain an extensive network of actin filaments. These were previously thought to be unique to eukaryotic cells.

Hence the images suggest that extensive cytoskeletal structures arose in archaea before the appearance of the first eukaryotes. This supports evolutionary theories around eukaryotic cells evolving from archaeal cells.

The research has been published in the journal Nature, titled “Actin cytoskeleton and complex cell architecture in an Asgard archaeon.”

Scientists Discover First Lifeform Known to Eat Viruses

Story by Ed Cara • 

Viruses are apparently no exception to the dog-eat-dog world that is nature. In a recent study, scientists have found evidence that some microscopic organisms actively feed on viruses. Though this may be the first “virovore” ever documented, many others likely exist, the team says.



In the simplest of terms, viruses are incredibly tiny packages of genetic material. Though they carry out many biological functions, such as replicating themselves, they need to infect and take over the machinery of cells belonging to other organisms in order to do so—a parasitic state of being that has led to fierce and ongoing debate over whether viruses should be considered living things. Regardless of their exact definition, viruses play many vital roles in the life cycle of every other creature in the world, humans included.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln seem to be the first to investigate whether viruses might be on the menu. Their earlier work made them familiar with chloroviruses, viruses abundant in freshwater that infect green algae. They wondered if certain water-dwelling organisms ever relied on viruses as a source of energy

To test their hypothesis, they first collected samples of pond water. Then they moved as many distinct types of microscopic beings into the water as possible. Lastly, they introduced large amounts of chlorovirus into the water and simply waited for a day to see if anything would change.

By the end of their experiments, they identified a species of Halteria—a single-celled protozoan—that appeared to eat the chloroviruses. Not only did populations of the virus dwindle in the presence of the Halteria, but the number of protozoans grew at the same time, indicating that the microbes were using the virus as fuel. The Halteria also didn’t grow when the chloroviruses weren’t around. And when the team used fluorescent green dye to mark the DNA of chloroviruses before they entered the water, they could clearly see the “stomachs” of the Halteria light up afterward, seemingly confirming their viral diet.

Related video: Bacteria-Eating Viruses Kill Hard-To-Stop Infections (Ivanhoe)

Duration 1:38  View on Watch

It may not be too surprising that some smaller creatures would evolve to intentionally ingest viruses. But as far as the researchers could tell, their study is the first to show that some microbes can sustain themselves with viruses alone. Their findings, published late last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also suggest that Halteria can feed off chloroviruses just as effectively as other microscopic organisms can feed off tiny sources of food like bacteria and algae. They estimate that Halteria in a small pond may be able to eat as many as 10 trillion chloroviruses a day.

“[Viruses are] made up of really good stuff: nucleic acids, a lot of nitrogen and phosphorous,” lead author John DeLong, an associate professor of biological sciences, said in a statement released by the university. “So many things will eat anything they can get ahold of. Surely something would have learned how to eat these really good raw materials.”

Far from being a simple curiosity, the team’s research could have some important implications. These viruses are already known to play an integral part in their freshwater environments, since they recycle carbon and other nutrients, which effectively prevents the energy provided from these nutrients from reaching other, larger forms of life. But if living things are eating these viruses, which are then eaten by bigger organisms and so on, then some of the nutrients and energy they would normally recycle might instead work their way up the food chain.

“If this is happening at the scale that we think it could be, it should completely change our view on global carbon cycling,” DeLong said.

DeLong and his team say they’ve since identified other microorganisms that appear capable of “virovory” in the lab. But while they suspect that many creatures can feed off viruses, they plan to find out whether this regularly happens in the wild. And from there, it will take more work to know how virovores affect their surrounding environments.

NOT JUST CHINA

Made in USA:

 XBB.1.5 fastest spreading variant since first Omicron wave

DON'T LET AMERICANS IN

By Rich Haridy
January 03, 2023

XBB.1.5 was first detected in New York in late October

New Atlas
VIEW GALLERY - 8 IMAGES


Projections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate the new SARS-CoV-2 variant XBB.1.5 has exploded in prevalence across the United States, rising from just 3% to over 40% in a few short weeks. The variant is thought to have emerged in New York and researchers claim early studies indicate it can more effectively bind to human cells than prior variants.

As the world celebrates the dawn of a new year, and we enter the fourth year of the pandemic, yet another twist in the COVID story has appeared with the emergence of XBB.1.5, a new Omicron subvariant that seems to be rapidly spreading across the United States. The variant looks to be the first recombinant mutation to have any relevant impact on the trajectory of the pandemic.

A recombinant is a virus that is a mix of genomes from different variants. They can emerge when a person is infected with two or more variants simultaneously.

"When a virus copies itself, it can 'template switch' between different genomes floating around," explained researcher Emma Hodcroft. "If those are all the same the end product isn't different! But if distinct lineages are there at the same time, we can spot these 'chimera' children - recombinants!"


Virus researcher Emma Hodcroft explaining recombination
Twitter

Plenty of SARS-CoV-2 recombinants have appeared in recent times, often resulting in hyperbolic headlines heralding the threat of a "deltacron" strain emerging. However, until very recently, no SARS-CoV-2 recombinant has ever spread significantly enough to generate a relevant infection wave.

The first recombinant to make a serious appearance arose a few months ago and was dubbed XBB. The unique variant is a combination of BJ.1 (aka BA.2.10.1.1) and BM.1.1.1 (aka BA.2.75.3.1.1.1).


XBB was initially identified in India in August and Singapore was the first country to experience an XBB wave in October. That wave peaked relatively quickly without causing too much trouble to the country's healthcare system, suggesting XBB may not cause too much trouble worldwide and leading many researchers to breathe a sign of relief.

A look at the rise and fall of XBB in Singapore
Twitter

But the last year has demonstrated no SARS-CoV-2 variant stays the same for too long, and as XBB travelled the world it quickly picked up new mutations. Enter XBB.1.5, possibly the first variant of concern to emerge out of the United States.

The first reported XBB.1.5 sample has been traced back to the 22nd of October in New York. A week later the variant was detected in Rhode Island and Washington state. Scattered detections were then traced in India and Indonesia in early November but by the middle of the month a number of European countries were picking up the new variant.

Tracking of XBB.1.5 samples over time from variant researcher Raj Rajnarayanan
Raj Rajnarayanan

Until last week the CDC's variant tracking model had not separated XBB.1.5 from XBB. But just before the turn of the new year its new forecast appeared, and suddenly XBB.1.5 had been included, projected as accounting for more than 40% of all cases in the United States.

Due to the slow pace of genomic sampling, the CDC employs a modeling system called Nowcast to predict variant changes in real-time. The current Nowcast model estimates XBB.1.5 cases have doubled in the US over the past week, and in the northeast of the country account for more than 75% of all confirmed cases.

The CDC's latest Nowcast modelling showing the rapid spread of XBB.1.5
CDC

As always, the million-dollar question is whether XBB.1.5 causes more severe illness than prior Omicron variants. Eric Topol, from the Scripps Research Institute, said New York can be considered a bellwether for XBB.1.5, and the region has seen a concerning rise in hospitalizations over the last few weeks. According to Topol this spike in hospitalizations may not be entirely due to the rise of XBB.1.5, but the new variant is almost certainly playing some kind of role.

Hospitalizations in New York state across the entire pandemic
Twitter

"Of course, other factors are likely contributing such as waning of immunity, indoor/holiday gatherings, cold weather, lack of mitigation," Topol explained on his blog. "But it is noteworthy that New York’s Covid hospital admission rate is the highest since late January (and also exceeds the summer 2021 Delta wave, but with some ambiguity as to how hospitalization were categorized then and now)."

Alongside these epidemiological observations new experimental data from researcher Yunlong Cao indicate a key mutation in XBB.1.5 may explain how this variant can more effectively bind with human cells. Dubbed F486P, the mutation enhances the virus's ability to bind with certain receptors on human cells. While other mutations help this particular variant evade immune antibodies developed from prior infections, F486P means the virus can more efficiently get into human cells.


Researcher Yunlong Cao posted his latest findings on Twitter in late December
Twitter

Around a year ago Jesse Bloom, a researcher tracking the evolution of viruses, flagged 486 as a key genomic site for future problematic SARS-CoV-2 mutations. Current vaccine- and infection-induced antibodies specifically rely on that spot to effectively neutralize the virus.

So most mutations at site 486 lead to a more immune evasive variant, but it's evolution at a cost. Studies linked earlier 486 mutations to less effective human cell receptor binding. This means earlier SARS-CoV-2 variants sacrificed cellular binding for antibody evasiveness.

In late 2021 the Bloom Lab flagged 486 as a key site for Omicron neutralization suggesting mutations here could be particularly immune evasive
Twitter

The big difference between XBB.1.5 from its parent lineages (XBB and XBB.1) is that it has traded a F486S mutation for F486P, and F486P is the only 486 site mutation that straddles the best of both worlds, antibody escape without sacrificing efficient human receptor affinity.

"Therefore, XBB.1.5 isn’t expected to have more antibody escape than XBB.1 (which already had mutated F486), but it should have greater ACE2 affinity," Bloom recently explained. "So it’s greater ACE2 affinity (and perhaps RBD [receptor binding domain] stability) that is giving XBB.1.5 its boost in transmissibility, and causing it to surge."

Yunlong Cao also speculates the unique cellular binding affinity of XBB.1.5 could make it more susceptible to generating further novel mutations in the future. So, of course, XBB.1.5 is unlikely to be the end of the road for SARS-CoV-2 variants.

"Another important observation is that XBB.1.5's hACE2 binding affinity is almost comparable to that of BA.2.75, which may enable XBB.1.5 to gain more mutations, similar to what BA.2.75 had," Cao suggested on Twitter. "It's just XBB.1.5 haven't felt much immune pressure yet."

None of this means XBB.1.5 will necessarily generate more severe disease than prior variants but it does mean XBB.1.5 may be able to infect more people, more easily, and subsequently track down those most vulnerable to COVID-19 – namely, the elderly, the under-vaccinated and the immunocompromised. XBB.1.5 in no way takes us back to square one but it certainly could prolong the pandemic, spiking infections and again placing pressure on health care systems.

Another potential concern of XBB.1.5 is its impact on long COVID. Yale researcher Akiko Iwasaki noted the increased cellular binding affinity for this new variant could hypothetically lead to a new wave of long COVID infections due to the virus's enhanced ability at infecting human cells.

"I’m concerned because of the putative ability of XBB.1.5 to have increased capacity to infect cell types that express even lower levels of ACE2," Iwasaki tweeted recently. "This will increase tropism and possibly persistence in cell types that are long lived."

Vaccine scientist Peter Hotez said XBB.1.5 raises plenty of new questions that need to be answered but we shouldn't be fearful or overreact. He points to a recently published study showing the new bivalent COVID vaccine is still effective against newer variants such as XBB. So XBB1.5 may have increased cellular binding affinity but our vaccines are still likely to be useful at reducing disease severity.


Should we be looking to add a new target to update the vaccine in 2023, Hotez asks. That's a question that scientists and variant trackers will invariably be asking as the new year progresses and SARS-CoV-2 continues to shape-shift around our defenses.

"I was hopeful 2022 would work out better than 2021," Hotez wrote on Twitter. "Maybe a little, but not so much… now hoping 2023 works out better than 2022 did."
Twitter

Rich Haridy
Rich has written for a number of online and print publications over the last decade while also acting as film critic for several radio broadcasters and podcasts. His interests focus on psychedelic science, new media, and science oddities. Rich completed his Masters degree in the Arts back in 2013 before joining New Atlas in 2016.

Beijing threatens response to ‘unacceptable’ COVID-19 measures for Chinese travelers

By —Ken Moritsugu, Associated Press

Jan 3, 2023 

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese government sharply criticized COVID-19 testing requirements imposed on passengers from China and threatened countermeasures against countries involved, which include the U.S. and several European nations.

“We believe that the entry restrictions adopted by some countries targeting China lack scientific basis, and some excessive practices are even more unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing Tuesday.

READ MORE: European Union tries to coordinate COVID travel policies for China

“We are firmly opposed to attempts to manipulate the COVID measures for political purposes and will take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity,” she said. Mao did not specify what steps China might take.

The comments were China’s sharpest to date on the issue. Australia and Canada this week joined a growing list of countries requiring travelers from China to take a COVID-19 test prior to boarding their flight, as China battles a nationwide outbreak of the coronavirus after abruptly easing restrictions that were in place for much of the pandemic.

Other countries including the U.S., U.K., India, Japan and several European nations have announced tougher COVID-19 measures on travelers from China amid concerns over a lack of data on infections in China and fears of the possibility that new variants may emerge.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne defended the tests. Starting Wednesday, anyone flying from China to France will have to present a negative virus test taken within the previous 48 hours and be subject to random testing on arrival.

“We are in our role, my government is in its role, protecting the French,” Borne said Tuesday on France-Info radio.

The U.K. will require that passengers from China take a COVID test before boarding the plane from Thursday. Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the requirement is for “collecting information” because Beijing isn’t sharing coronavirus data.

Health officials will test a sample of passengers when they arrive in the U.K., but no quarantine is required for those who test positive, he said.

“The policy for arrivals from China is primarily about collecting information that the Chinese government is not sharing with the international community,” Harper told the LBC radio station on Tuesday.

Sweden’s Public Health Agency said Tuesday that it had urged the government to require travelers from China to present a recent negative COVID-19 test.

READ MORE: Travelers from China must test for COVID-19 starting next week, U.S. announces

The statement from the agency comes as Sweden, which has taken over the EU’s rotating presidency, has called a meeting of the EU’s crisis management mechanism for Wednesday to try to agree on a common European line.

The Swedish government “is preparing to be able to introduce travel restrictions. At the same time, we are conducting a dialogue with our European colleagues to get the same rules as possible in the EU,” Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer said in a statement.

Austria, too, plans to test the wastewater of all planes arriving from China for new variants of the coronavirus, the Austria Press Agency reported Tuesday, following a similar announcement by Belgium a day earlier.

Chinese health officials said last week that they had submitted data to GISAID, a global platform for sharing coronavirus data.

The versions of the virus fueling infections in China “closely resemble” those that have been seen in different parts of the world between July and December, GISAID said Monday.

Dr. Gagandeep Kang, who studies viruses in the Christian Medical College of Vellore in India, said that the information from China, albeit limited, seemed to suggest that “the pattern was holding” and that there wasn’t any sign of a worrisome variant emerging.

Mao, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said that health authorities had recently held a video conference with the WHO to exchange views on the current COVID situation, medical treatment, vaccination and other technical issues, and agreed to continue technical exchanges to help end the pandemic as soon as possible.

A senior Hong Kong official also criticized the steps taken by some other countries. Some countries have applied the requirements to passengers from Hong Kong and Macao, both semiautonomous Chinese territories, as well as mainland China.

Hong Kong Chief Secretary Eric Chan said in a Facebook post that the government had written to various consulates on Monday to express its concerns over the “unnecessary and inappropriate” rules.

Some Canadian experts have questioned the effectiveness of the testing. Kerry Bowman, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, said that people can test positive long after entering the country.

WATCH: COVID rapidly spreads in China as government eases strict quarantine rules

The requirement is “not based on science at this point,” he said after Canada announced measures last weekend.

China, which for most of the pandemic adopted a “zero-COVID” strategy that imposed harsh restrictions aimed at stamping out the virus, abruptly eased those measures in December.

Chinese authorities previously said that from Jan. 8, overseas travelers would no longer need to quarantine upon arriving in China, paving the way for Chinese residents to travel.

Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris, Sylvia Hui in London, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Kanis Leung in Hong Kong and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

New Zealand won’t require visitors from China to show COVID test

‘There is minimal public health risk to New Zealand,’ COVID-19 minister Ayesha Verrall said of visitors from China.

Published On 4 Jan 2023

The New Zealand government said it will not require travellers from China to produce a negative COVID-19 test on arrival, bucking a trend that has seen a number of countries implement testing measures as COVID cases surge in China.

New Zealand’s COVID-19 minister, Ayesha Verrall, said in a statement on Wednesday that a public health risk assessment had concluded visitors from China would not contribute significantly to the number of cases in the country.

“There is minimal public health risk to New Zealand,” the minister said.

“Officials have done a public health risk assessment including working through scenarios of potential case numbers among travellers from China. This confirmed these visitors won’t contribute significantly to our COVID case numbers meaning entry restrictions aren’t required or justified,” the minister said.

Officials will be asking some travellers from China to do voluntary tests to gather more information, which Verrall said reflected New Zealand’s concern alongside that of the World Health Organization (WHO) about China’s lack of information sharing.

New Zealand is also planning to trial testing waste-water on international flights to see if this can replace targeted and voluntary testing of individuals.

A number of countries including Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States are requiring that travellers from China produce a negative COVID test over concerns about the scale of the country’s outbreak and scepticism over Beijing’s health statistics.

China has criticised these moves as discriminatory.

Health officials from the 27-member European Union are due to meet on Wednesday to build a coordinated response to the implications of increased travel from China.

Most EU countries favour pre-departure COVID testing for travellers from China, the European Commission said on Tuesday.

China, which has been largely shut off from the world since the pandemic began in late 2019, will stop requiring inbound travellers to quarantine from January 8. But it will still demand that arriving passengers get tested before they begin their journeys.

Meanwhile, WHO officials met Chinese scientists on Tuesday, after having invited them to present detailed data on viral sequencing and share hospitalisation, deaths and vaccinations data before the meeting.

The WHO will communicate later, probably at a Wednesday news briefing, the result of that meeting. A spokesperson earlier said the agency expected a “detailed discussion” about circulating variants in China and globally.

Infections in China have spiked after the country dropped its strict zero-COVID policy on December 7.

All international arrivals in New Zealand are asked to test if they become symptomatic, with the country providing free tests at the airport.


SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES  

Most EU countries back Covid-19 pre-departure testing for flights from China
JANUARY 03, 2023

European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides delivers a speech on the EU's role in combating the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and how to vaccinate the world, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Nov 24, 2021.
Reuters file

BRUSSELS — Most European Union countries favour introducing pre-departure Covid-19 testing for travellers from China, the European Commission said on Tuesday (Jan 3), as Beijing plans to lift travel restrictions on its citizens despite a wave of Covid-19 infections.

The common EU approach emerged after a meeting on Tuesday of the Health Security Committee, an EU advisory body of national health experts from the EU-s 27 countries and chaired by the Commission.

"The overwhelming majority of countries are in favour of pre-departure testing," a Commission spokesman said.

"These measures would need to be targeted at the most appropriate flights and airports and carried out in a coordinated way to ensure their effectiveness," he said.

The Commission on Tuesday prepared a draft proposal for the talks, which included a recommendation for mask wearing on flights from China, wastewater monitoring for aircraft arriving from China, genomic surveillance at airports and increased monitoring and sequencing and increased EU vigilance on testing and vaccination.

"This will now be revised and adopted based on the input of (EU) Member States," the Commission spokesman said, adding more talks on the measures would take place at another meeting of EU health officials on Wednesday afternoon.

The spokesman said all EU countries agreed they needed a coordinated approach to the changing situation in China and to deal with implications of increased travel from China to Europe after China lifts its stringent pandemic polices on Jan 8.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said last week it did not currently recommend measures on travellers from China.

It said the variants circulating in China were already in the European Union, that EU citizens had relatively high vaccination levels and the potential for imported infections was low compared to daily infections in the EU, with healthcare systems currently coping.

ALSO READ: China state media plays down severity of Covid-19 wave before WHO meeting

Source: Reuters

61 visitors from China to South Korea tested

Covid-19 positive on 1st day of new travel

 restrictions

Testing for visitors.
Keyla Supharta |  January 04, 2023, 
 

South Korea confirmed 61 positive cases of Covid-19 among visitors from China on the first day the country's new travel restrictions came into effect, on Monday (Jan. 2), Yonhap News Agency reported.

Under the new measures, visitors from China have to present a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours before their arrival or a negative antigen test taken within 24 hours before their arrival, followed by a PCR test after arrival.

According to The Korea Times, those who tested positive have to be quarantined at a facility arranged by the Korean government for seven days. The facility can hold up to 100 patients.

61 visitors from China tested positive

On Monday morning (Jan. 2), staff at Incheon airport were seen handing out red name tags to all short-term visitors from China to differentiate them from tourists from other countries, Yonhap reported.

Soldiers donning blue protective outfits then escorted Chinese visitors to a PCR testing centre at Incheon Airport's Terminal 1.

There were no separate routes given to make this trip, so some travellers from Singapore were mistaken for Chinese visitors and given red name tags after standing in the wrong lines.

Those who took the PCR tests had to stay in a waiting room at a nearby transportation centre before their test results came out. The centre can accommodate about 300 people and have benches and simple refreshments.

On the first day that the measures were implemented, 61 Chinese visitors tested positive for Covid despite presenting a negative Covid test before their arrival. 309 people were tested overall.

Frustration towards restrictions

Some people voiced their dissatisfaction with the new measures. A Chinese national waiting for her friend arriving from China expressed her frustration for having to wait at the airport for more than six hours.

A South Korean employee for a South Korean company based in Beijing said his business trip in Seoul was disrupted as he had to quarantine after his PCR test.

"The tougher restrictions may be necessary due to serious Covid-19 situations in China, but it is regrettable that the (South Korean) government has not given prior notice sufficiently in advance," he said.

South Korea will also implement travel measures for travellers from Hong Kong and Macau from Jan. 7, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. However, they are not required to take a PCR test upon arrival, unlike visitors from China, according to The Korea Times.

China to retaliate against nations who imposed Covid travel curbs

Aside from South Korea, countries like Japan, the United States and Italy announced that arrivals from China have to present a negative Covid test.

The rules came due to mounting concerns about the ongoing surge of Covid cases in the country, as well as the lack of transparency about the situation.

According to Bloomberg, China said it would retaliate against nations who imposed Covid travel restrictions towards Chinese visitors.

“We believe that some countries’ entry restrictions targeting only China lack scientific basis and some excessive measures are unacceptable,” Mao Ning, the spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at a press briefing.

RIP

Last Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham dies aged 90

Space flight that paved way for Moon landings was first Nasa mission to broadcast live TV from orbit

Astronaut Walter Cunningham during the Apollo 7 mission in October 1968. Nasa / Reuters

Jan 03, 2023

Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the Apollo 7 crew that flew to space in 1968, has died at the age of 90.

Cunningham was part of Nasa's first successful crewed Apollo space mission, alongside Walter Schirra and Donn Eisele for the 11-day space flight conducted in low Earth orbit.

He was lunar module pilot on Apollo 7, although the mission was not to the Moon.

Cunningham died on Tuesday in Houston, Texas.

Command module pilot Eisele died in 1987 and mission commander Schirra, one of the original “Mercury Seven” astronauts, in 2007.

“Walt Cunningham was a fighter pilot, physicist and an entrepreneur — but, above all, he was an explorer,” said Nasa administrator Bill Nelson.

Apollo 7 marked the resumption of Nasa's lunar space flight programme on October 11, 1968.

It came 21 months after the fire that killed all three members of the Apollo 1 crew during a ground-based launch rehearsal in January 1967.

Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham speaking at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014. AP

Cunningham also served in the US Navy and Marine Corps, flying 54 missions as a fighter pilot before retiring with the rank of colonel.

He was chosen by Nasa as an astronaut in 1963.

Apollo 7 was the first Nasa mission to broadcast live TV from orbit, including tense exchanges between ground control and astronauts who openly voiced annoyance with mission directors at times.

None of the three astronauts went to space again. Schirra, who had flown two previous Nasa missions, had already announced plans to retire.

After the mission, Cunningham was assigned to lead the Skylab branch, an early space station programme, under Nasa's flight crew directorate.

He retired from the space agency in 1971, becoming an investor and radio talk show host.

The Apollo 7 mission was considered a technical success.

It proved the capabilities and integrity of systems that would carry Apollo 11 to the lunar surface in July 1969 for the historic first Moon walks by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin.

UK fresh food prices surge 15% in year to December: BRC

David Milliken
Tue, 3 January 2023

A person looks at food goods in a shop in London

LONDON (Reuters) - Fresh food prices at British supermarkets in early December were 15.0% higher than a year earlier, the biggest annual increase since at least 2005 when records started, figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) showed on Wednesday.

British households were hit hard by a soaring cost of living in 2022, and the Bank of England has forecast that inflation will remain high over the coming months due to the ongoing impact of high energy bills before falling later in 2023.

The BRC said the overall annual rate of shop price inflation reported by its members - mostly large retail chains and supermarkets - dropped to 7.3% from 7.4%. This was driven by a drop in inflation for non-food items to 4.4% from 4.8%.

Overall food price inflation rose to a record 13.3% from 12.4%, reflecting increases in the rate of inflation to 15.0% for fresh food and 11.0% for less perishable items.

"Reverberations from the war in Ukraine continued to keep high the cost of animal feed, fertiliser and energy," BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said.

The BRC price data was collected between Dec. 1 and Dec. 7.

Britain's official rate of consumer price inflation - which covers a wider range of goods, services and businesses than the BRC survey - hit a 41-year high of 11.1% in October, before dropping to 10.7% in November.

However, food and drink price inflation as measured by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) continued to increase in November, hitting its highest since September 1977 at 16.4% on the official measure.

Many British households are struggling. Last month, the ONS said 6% of households had run out of food because they could not afford to buy more. Almost a quarter of households were unable to afford to consistently keep their main living room at a comfortable temperature.

Separate research from the British government's Food Standards Agency in September found that 30% of households had reduced portion sizes or skipped meals to save money.

(Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Andy Bruce)

Bleak Brits believe cost of living crisis will worsen in 2023, poll reveals

A majority of the public, some 60 percent of respondents, believe that 2023 will actually be worse financially for their families than the year just gone

January 02, 2023

editor: REMIX NEWS

author: THOMAS BROOKE

A deeply pessimistic British electorate expects the cost of living crisis to continue to hamper the country in the calendar year to come with seven in ten Brits having little faith in the ability of Rishi Sunak’s administration to improve their fortunes in 2023, latest polling reveals.

A PeoplePolling survey, commissioned by GB News, revealed as few as 1 percent of respondents were completely confident the government would effectively tackle the cost of living crisis which has seen inflation sky-rocket due to record-high energy prices.

Only 18 percent are “fairly,” “somewhat” or “slightly” confident in the government’s ability to ease the crisis, while 70 percent have little faith in Sunak’s administration to tackle financial pressures in the year ahead.

Labour voters at the last general election are typically the least confident in the government, with 90 percent pessimistic about its competence, however, a majority of Conservative voters from 2019 (53 percent) have also lost faith in the party they elected into government.

When asked for words which spring to mind to best describe their views of the year ahead, the most widely-used terms included “difficult,” “tough,” “challenging,” “bleak,” and “worrying.”

Source: Twitter, @GoodwinMJ

“S**t,” “f****d”, and “poverty” were also commonly-used phrases by respondents.

A majority of the public, some 60 percent of respondents, believe that 2023 will actually be worse financially for their families than the year just gone, with just 6 percent expecting it to be better, revealing the extent of the task ahead for the U.K. government to win back an evermore pessimistic electorate which is losing faith in its leaders to steady the ship.

Commenting on the polling results, academic and pollster Matthew Goodwin said U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was “heading into 202 facing some huge obstacles.”

He claimed the Conservative party’s recovery “has not just stalled but now appears to be going backwards.

Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party begin 2023 in prime position, with more than enough support for a majority at the next general election. Whatever Rishi Sunak does next, he’d better do it quick because the clock is now ticking, and he and his party are well behind.”

Austerity has its own life. Here's how it lives on in future generations

by Sarah Marie Hall, The Conversation

Financial worries stemming from austerity could span generations.

 Credit: fizkes / Shutterstock

Austerity in the U.K. is here to stay. The Bank of England has warned that the country is facing the longest recession since records began, predicting that the economic slump will extend well into 2024. At the same time, the most recent budget has been called austerity 2.0 by companies, unions, political figures and policy experts. This suggests the era of public spending cuts seen since 2010 has reached the next phase: austerity as the "new normal."

Austerity policies implemented since 2010 have not been substantially reversed or retracted in recent years. In fact, they have often been leveled at the most marginalized social groups.

In 2019, cuts in total expenditure on welfare and benefit payments alone were expected to total £37 billion a year by 2020. And now, growing numbers of people in the U.K. are struggling with everyday costs of living, while a further £28 billion of cuts to public funding were announced in the government's November 2022 budget.

All of this shows how keenly economic policies are felt in everyday life, in the mundane: eating, heating, caring, shopping and traveling. And perpetual and cumulative cuts like those we have seen made in recent years to welfare, education, social and health care services shape daily lives and social relationships. The effects continue, across time and generations. They also worsen existing inequalities relating to gender, race, class, age and disability.

My previous research during the 2008–09 U.K. economic recession revealed how memories and intergenerational relationships are key to understanding what it means to get by in times of recession and crisis. For instance, upbringing, living through previous recessions, debt and hardship are central to how people respond to economic downturns. These experiences, family histories and memories are often shared across generations in a way that influences younger people about financial issues.

Policies that aim to tackle poverty and economic inequality need to go beyond a focus on "the household" because this is not the only (or even the predominant) framework for how social relationships are built. Instead, people live within and across households that intersect based on kinship, friendship, intimacy and more. These are the main mechanisms that people use to get by during difficult times.

Further research shows how austerity can be experienced as a "personal crisis," affecting the things people can do, afford and dream about, including having security at home and work. It even extends to whether or not people are able to make decisions about having children. Suffice it to say, economic policies have more than momentary effects, they ripple across people's lives—and that of their children—even if their circumstances improve.

A life of its own

Taking this further, my latest research shows how austerity policies also have their own life. In the U.K., this started with the early dismantling of the welfare state alongside diminished investment in deprived and post-industrial areas from the 1980s onwards. These programs have entrenched inequality in certain regions of the U.K. So, while the current era of austerity arose from the recession following the global financial crisis 14 years ago, it is more deeply embedded in certain parts of the country.

We can get an idea of how austerity affects people's daily lives by listening to their stories. Yusuf, for example, spoke to me about the instabilities he currently faces at work and how that has affected his life choices. "There's no job security or stability," he says. "There's not enough trade [as a mechanic] anymore like there used to be years ago." As a result, Yusuf does not think he could afford to have children.

Employment opportunities and local industries across northern England (where my research was carried out), had already been hit hard by years of local underinvestment. But adding austerity to the mix meant these factors culminated in multi-faceted forms of insecurity and uncertainty for Yusuf. His lack of job security is then linked to being unable to afford to have children—a different life to the one he had imagined.

Even if austerity cuts were reversed today, the long-term effects for Yusuf and countless others could continue for generations. Economic policies should be implemented alongside forecasts of what their effects will be for future generations. Researching these future outcomes, as well as past and current experiences, will highlight the unevenness of austerity measures. This will help to ensure that austerity policies and the devastation they cause do not become normalized, condemning many more generations to their long-term negative effects.

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

'I don't think I can cope financially': People are putting off parenthood because of austerity