Vaccines are being offered

Novak Djokovic is under threat of a grand slam exile after he was told he would need to be vaccinated to play at the French Open and Wimbledon gave no guarantees he would be allowed to defend his title this summer. The French government became the latest to ban those refusing to be vaccinated against coronavirus from the country’s stadiums in a move which will also impact the Six Nations and Chelsea's Champions League campaign. Djokovic faces being locked out of three of the four majors, with the United States having already joined Australia in imposing a policy of mandatory vaccinations on foreign visitors. Wimbledon also provided no assurances that it would allow Djokovic to play – even if the UK government continued to permit unvaccinated overseas sportspeople to come here to compete and train. Djokovic was deported from Australia on Sunday , and could be banned from re-entering for three years , following an extraordinary saga triggered by his refusal to be jabbed … [Read more...] about Wimbledon offers no participation guarantees to Novak Djokovic amid threat of grand slam ban

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un ordered his military to respond to a surge in suspected COVID-19 infections. Late last week, Pyongyang for the first time acknowledged that the country had faced any COVID cases at all, before state media began to rapidly report about it spreading "explosively" across the reclusive country. Health authorities said on Monday that eight more people had died, and an additional 392,920 were newly found to have feverish symptoms. That brings the official death toll to 50 and illnesses to more than 1.2 million. Kim ordered the deployment of the "powerful forces" of the army's medical corps to "stabilize the supply of medicines in Pyongyang City," North Korea's capital, state news agency KCNA reported on Monday. Kim also reportedly criticized health officials over what he called a botched pandemic response , saying medicine supplies weren't being distributed to pharmacies in time because of their "irresponsible work attitude" and lack of … [Read more...] about North Korea’s Kim orders military to help curb COVID-19 outbreak

Published 6 hours ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Related Topics Coronavirus pandemic North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has lambasted health officials and ordered the army to help distribute medicine, as a wave of Covid cases sweeps through the country. More than a million people have now been sickened by what Pyongyang is calling a "fever", state media said. Some 50 people have died, but it's unclear how many of those suspected cases tested positive for Covid. North Korea has only limited testing capacity, so few cases are confirmed. North Koreans are likely to be especially vulnerable to the virus due to lack of vaccinations and a poor healthcare system. A nationwide lockdown is in place in the reclusive country. State media said Mr Kim led an emergency politburo meeting at the weekend where he accused officials of bungling the distribution of the … [Read more...] about North Korea: More than a million Covid cases feared

By Thom Poole & Robert Greenall Published 1 day ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Related Topics Coronavirus pandemic For almost two-and-a-half years, North Korea has stuck to its claim it has seen no cases of Covid-19. Not any more. This week, the country confirmed its first infections. The highly reclusive nation had responded to the pandemic by closing its borders, although few believed it had really managed to escape the virus. Now, the authorities are not only acknowledging the virus' presence but declaring an all-out battle to control it, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un calling it the "greatest turmoil" to fall on the nation since its founding. A national lockdown is in place. Hardly anywhere in the world is untouched by Covid. Cases have been recorded at the base camp of Everest and in Antarctica. Individual nations' responses to the pandemic … [Read more...] about Covid: What will the pandemic look like in North Korea?

North Korea has instructed its citizens to gargle with salt water and drink willow leaf tea three times a day as the reclusive regime struggles to find medication to fight a potentially disastrous Covid-19 outbreak. The remedies were reported by North Korean state media, which said on Monday that leader Kim Jong-un had ordered the military to stabilise the supply of medicines. At least 50 people are reported to have died since Pyongyang confirmed late last week that it was facing an “explosive” Covid-19 outbreak that was ripping through its impoverished, unvaccinated nation. Some 1.2 million out of a 26 million population are ill with fever – with 392,920 more cases reported on Monday – said state newswire KCNA. More than 564,860 people are believed to be in quarantine. Kim warned at the weekend that spread of the highly infectious omicron variant had thrown the country into “great turmoil". Outside experts say the combination of the virus with an under-resourced … [Read more...] about ‘Gargle with saltwater to treat Covid,’ North Korea tells citizens

That the conflict in Ukraine has become such a debacle for Vladimir Putin – whose sole responsibility it is – has surprised many in the West. For years we had instinctively believed much of the publicity from Russia about its power. Putin in his arrogance was, like us it seems, woefully ignorant of the real capabilities of Russia’s militar y. He was also poorly advised and briefed, and leader of a crew of pathological liars. His soldiers have been exposed as demoralised boy conscripts, with no idea they were expected to "liberate" Ukraine from "Nazidom" . Their weaponry was ill-deployed and often ineffective, their logistics inadequate. They became sitting ducks for highly-motivated, better-armed and above all hugely brave Ukrainians . Russia has inflicted huge damage on Ukraine, and terrible cruelties on its people, and continues to do so. However, a war that was supposed to lead to the capture of Kyiv within days has now lasted nearly three months. There is no … [Read more...] about How Putin’s disastrous war exposed the folly of Macron’s EU army