New top story from Time: With COVID-19 Cases Surging, Japan Extends the Areas Under a State of Emergency

https://ift.tt/38c7DNy

TOKYO — Japan was set to expand its coronavirus state of emergency for a second week in a row Wednesday, adding several more prefectures as a surge in infections fueled by the delta variant strains the country’s health care system.

The government last week extended the state of emergency until Sept. 12 and expanded the areas covered to 13 prefectures from six including Tokyo. Sixteen other prefectures are currently under quasi-emergency status.

The government at a meeting of experts Wednesday proposed upgrading eight prefectures from quasi-emergency status to a full state of emergency. Those prefectures include Hokkaido and Miyagi in the north, Aichi and Gifu in central Japan, and Hiroshima and Okayama in the west.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The proposal was expected to be approved and formally announced later Wednesday.

Japan’s state of emergency relies on requirements for eateries to close at 8 p.m. and not serve alcohol, but the measures are increasingly defied. Unenforceable social distancing and tele-working requests for the public and their employers are also largely ignored due to growing complacency.

The Japanese capital has been under the emergency since July 12, but new daily cases have increased more than tenfold since then to about 5,000 in Tokyo and 25,000 nationwide. Hospital beds are quickly filling and many people must now recover at home, including some who require supplemental oxygen.

More than 35,000 patients in Tokyo are recovering at home, about one-third of them unable to find a hospital or hotel vacancies immediately. Only a small percentage of hospitals are taking virus patients, either for financial reasons or because they lack the capability to treat the infections, experts say.

Japan has weathered the pandemic better than many other countries, with around 15,600 deaths nationwide since the start, but its vaccination efforts lag behind other wealthy nations. About 40% of the population has been fully vaccinated, mainly elderly people.

Economy and Fiscal Policy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, also in charge of the COVID-19 measures, said Wednesday that infections are spreading among those in their 20s to 50s who are largely unvaccinated. He urged them to take extra caution.

“Just imagine you may be the one getting infected tomorrow,” he said.

Rising infections among schoolchildren and teenagers could accelerate the surge as they begin returning to school after the summer vacation, said Dr. Shigeru Omi, top government medical advisor. He proposed schools curtail activity and urged high schools and colleges to return to online classes.

“Infections in Tokyo are showing no signs of slowing, and the severely tight medical systems will continue for a while,” he told a parliamentary session Wednesday.

The government has faced criticism for holding this summer’s Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics despite strong opposition from the public. Officials deny any direct link between the games and the spike in infections.

Comments

New top story from Time: R. Kelly Found Guilty in Sex Trafficking Trial

https://ift.tt/3kMSmKc (NEW YORK) — The R&B superstar R. Kelly was convicted Monday in a sex trafficking trial after decades of avoiding criminal responsibility for numerous allegations of misconduct with young women and children. A jury of seven men and five women found Kelly guilty of racketeering on their second day of deliberations. The charges were based on an argument that the entourage of managers and aides who helped the singer meet girls—and keep them obedient and quiet—amounted to a criminal enterprise. Read more: A Full Timeline of Sexual Abuse Allegations Against R. Kelly [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Several accusers testified in lurid detail during the trial, alleging that Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage. For years, the public and news media seemed to be more amused than horrified by allegations of inappropriate relationships with minors, starting with Kelly’s illegal marriage to the R&B phenom Aaliya...

New top story from Time: Brazil Becomes the Second Nation After the U.S. to Top 300,000 COVID-19 Deaths

https://ift.tt/39g3hWi SAO PAULO — Brazil topped 300,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, becoming the second country to do so amid a spike in infections that has seen the South American country report record death tolls in recent days. The United States reached the grim milestone on Dec. 14, but has a larger population than Brazil. On Wednesday, Brazil’s health ministry reported 2,009 daily COVID-19 deaths, bringing its pandemic total to 300,685. On Tuesday, the country saw a single-day record of 3,251 deaths. According to local media reports, the latest coronavirus figures might be affected by changes in the government’s counting system. Newly appointed Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said in a press conference that he was going to check whether the numbers had been artificially reduced. With daily death tolls at pandemic highs, state governors and mayors in Brazil have expressed fears that April could be as bad as March for the country’s overwhelmed hospitals. ...

New top story from Time: All 53 People Aboard Indonesia Submarine Declared Dead After Vessel’s Wreckage Found

https://ift.tt/3ezrzg5 ANYUWANGI, Indonesia — Indonesia’s military on Sunday officially said all 53 crew members from a submarine that sank and broke apart last week are dead, and that search teams had located the vessel’s wreckage on the ocean floor. The grim announcement comes a day after Indonesia said the submarine was considered sunk, not merely missing , but did not explicitly say whether the crew was dead. Officials had also said the KRI Nanggala 402’s oxygen supply would have run out early Saturday, three days after vessel went missing off the resort island of Bali. “We received underwater pictures that are confirmed as the parts of the submarine, including its rear vertical rudder, anchors, outer pressure body, embossed dive rudder and other ship parts,” military chief Hadi Tjahjanto told reporters in Bali on Sunday. “With this authentic evidence, we can declare that KRI Nanggala 402 has sunk and all the crew members are dead,” Tjahjanto said. An underwater ro...

New top story from Time: In New Zealand, ‘Hello’ Has Become ‘Kia Ora.’ Will That Save the Māori Language?

https://ift.tt/2LMKZ6a Kenny Williams began to study the Māori language during his second COVID-19 lockdown . Williams, 36, lives alone and the isolation made him yearn to feel closer to his identity as an indigenous New Zealander—an identity he had spent most of his childhood trying to hide. After he ordered some Māori language books, he found his studies helped him build a connection to his Māori history. “I didn’t know it was a gap that was missing in my life,” he says. It’s not just lockdown isolation—New Zealanders of all stripes are signing up to learn the language of the Māori people, New Zealand’s original inhabitants—“te reo Māori,” as it is widely called. But COVID-19 may have provided a boost: One university reported that 7,000 people accessed a free online Māori language and culture course in a 10-day period during lockdown. The New Zealand government has pledged to ensure 1 million residents are able to speak basic Māori by 2040—an effort to revive a langu...

New top story from Time: Facebook’s Surprise Antitrust Victory Could Inspire Congress to Overhaul the Rules Entirely

https://ift.tt/2UK7nBE Facebook won a major victory this week when a judge dismissed two lawsuits that argued the social media giant was a monopoly. But critics of Big Tech hope the rulings will be just the leverage they need to update antitrust laws that still have legal grounding in the effort to break up Standard Oil more than a century ago. Monday’s ruling means that Facebook , for now at least, is safe from being forced to spin out its WhatsApp and Instagram subsidiaries into separate businesses. Facebook’s stock market valuation surged to more than $1 trillion for the first time ever as investors reacted to the news—a rise of nearly 5%. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But Facebook is not out of the woods yet. The court noted in its ruling that competition watchdog the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could refile an amended complaint with more evidence within 30 days. And in Washington, bigger threats are brewing. What did the ruling say? The decision, by the Fe...

Nitish Kumar will ditch BJP to join RJD after poll results: Chirag Paswan https://ift.tt/3kByTcP

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his party Janata Dal (United) have done preparations to ditch the BJP and join Rashtriya Dal Party (RJD) after the poll results are out, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Chirag Paswan said on Wednesday. Firing a fresh salvo at Kumar, Chirag Paswan said he has done preparations to leave the BJP and go with the RJD after the elections.

New top story from Time: As Myanmar’s Junta Intensifies Its Crackdown, Pro-Democracy Protesters Prepare for Civil War

https://ift.tt/3cUWeEQ Before the Feb. 1 coup, Zarni Win* worked for a United Nations-funded committee that monitored a ceasefire between Myanmar’s junta and ethnic armed groups. Today, the 27-year-old from Yangon, the country’s largest city, is getting ready to enlist in one of those groups herself. “Now is the time to start preparing to eliminate the terrorist military,” she tells TIME. “I am ready to join the armed revolution.” Myanmar is veering dangerously toward all-out civil war as the military, known as the Tatmadaw, terrorizes the public , and attacks restive ethnic territories. The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, warned on Mar. 31 that “a bloodbath is imminent.” In an online presentation cited by the Associated Press, she said civil war “at an unprecedented scale” was a possibility and spoke of Myanmar’s deterioration into a “failed state.” Protesters in Myanmar have maintained a largely peaceful resistance to dictatorship since ...

New top story from Time: My Family Is Still Being Careful About COVID-19. Why Does It Feel Like We’re the Only Ones?

https://ift.tt/2ZSA1jv Welcome to COVID Questions, TIME’s advice column. We’re trying to make living through the pandemic a little easier, with expert-backed answers to your toughest coronavirus-related dilemmas. While we can’t and don’t offer medical advice—those questions should go to your doctor—we hope this column will help you sort through this stressful and confusing time. Got a question? Write to us at covidquestions@time.com . Today, K.K. in California asks: My son is almost two, and he was born prematurely at 33 weeks. We don’t ever want to see him in the hospital again, and especially not because we were careless. Once lockdowns began last year, we took the virus seriously right away, and felt like most of our community and friends were doing the same. However, lately, we have felt like we are the only ones still taking COVID seriously. We follow everything that the health experts say but increasingly come across people who approach too closely, do not wear masks...

New top story from Time: Joe Biden Tries to Pass His Domestic Agenda As Crises Mount

https://ift.tt/3i4GFwG This is not how Joe Biden wanted September to go. He expected to be barnstorming the country in the closing weeks of negotiations on his signature spending plan , pitching the expansion of health care benefits and child care provisions , and driving the momentum of those popular policies to the finish line. Instead, he’s spent weeks managing the fallout from a cascade of crises, some foisted upon him, some of his Administration’s own making. Instead of being able to focus his time and Air Force One’s flight plans on pushing through $3.5 trillion in transformational investments in the social safety net, Biden had to manage his own precipitous and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan , the ham-fisted rollout of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, the Border Patrol’s abuse of Haitian migrants coming to the Texas border, alarming hurricane damage from Louisiana to New York , historic wildfires in the American West, and a diplomatic tussle with America’s long...

New top story from Time: Why Dmitry Muratov’s Nobel Peace Prize Matters for Russia’s Journalists

https://ift.tt/30aDPA3 Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov was named alongside Maria Ressa as a Nobel Peace Prize winner on Friday in recognition of his efforts to defend freedom of expression. Muratov has less of an international profile than Filipino journalist Ressa, who was one of the “Guardians” of the free press TIME named as Person of the Year in 2018 , but journalists and critics of the Russian government have widely welcomed his selection. Who is Dmitry Muratov? Muratov is the founder and editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last big newspapers to regularly criticize President Vladimir Putin, and which has reported extensively on government corruption in the country. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “The newspaper’s fact-based journalism and professional integrity have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media,” the Nobel Committee said in a statement announcing the award Frid...

My precise view

Search This Blog