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world news Diabierna 27 november 2020

Pubs to stay shut in many areas in new English virus curbs

(AP) — Most people in ery, and leisure venues such
England will continue to as cinemas and bowling al-
face tight restrictions on leys must stay closed. Shops,
socializing and business gyms, hairdressers and beau-
after a nationwide lock- ty parlors will be able to open
down ends next week, across the country, however.
with pubs and restaurants Prime Minister Boris Johnson
ordered to remain shut said “tough measures” would
in areas that are home to be needed until spring, when
more than 20 million peo- it’s hoped a combination of
ple. vaccines and mass testing can
help life return to normal. “If
The government announced we ease off now we risk los-
details on Thursday of three- ing control over this virus all
level regional measures that over again, casting aside our
will take effect Dec. 2. Only hard-won gains and forcing
three remote and island ar- us back into a New Year na-
eas with a total population of tional lockdown, with all the
700,000 are in the lowest tier, damage that would mean,”
where pubs and restaurants he said at a news conference.
can open almost as normal The government imposed a
and members of different four-week lockdown in Eng-
households can meet up in- land early this month to curb
doors. an autumn surge in coronavi- money under conditions im- ing the festive period travel developed by Pfizer, Mod-
More than half of England’s rus cases, with travel restrict- posed in tier 2, where alcohol restrictions will be paused erna and AstraZeneca, have
56 million people, including ed and nonessential business- can only be served with meals and up to three households shown promising results in
London’s 8.6 million resi- es closed. The government’s and entertainment venues are will be able to form a “Christ- clinical trials but have yet
dents, are in the middle level, statistics office says the infec- restricted to half capacity. mas bubble” for socializing. to be approved by Britain’s
where most shops, restau- tion rate appears to have lev- “There has got to be a real Britain has had Europe’s medicines regulator.
rants and leisure businesses eled off, but Health Secretary danger that if these restric- worst coronavirus outbreak, In the meantime, govern-
can open — with some re- Matt Hancock said “we must tions aren’t lifted very, very with more than 57,000 con- ment scientific advisers are
strictions — and audiences remain vigilant.” soon now there will be a lot firmed deaths. warning people to be careful
can return in limited num- The measures must be ap- of businesses that simply The government hopes that when using their temporary
bers to theaters and sports proved by Parliament, which won’t reopen,” said Con- a combination of mass test- freedom to meet family and
stadiums. is due to vote next week. servative legislator Graham ing using rapid-turnaround friends at Christmas.
Another 23 million people in Johnson faces opposition Brady, who said he planned tests and vaccines will allow “Would I want someone to
a huge chunk of central and from some of his own Con- to vote against the “authori- most restrictions to be lifted see their family? Of course,
northern England, including servative Party lawmakers, tarian” measures. by spring 2021. that’s what Christmas is
the large cities of Birming- who say the economic dam- Scotland, Wales and North- Hancock said a mass testing about,” England’s Chief
ham and Manchester, along age from the measures out- ern Ireland have their own project in Liverpool reduced Medical Officer, Chris Whit-
with the large southeast- weighs the public health set of restrictions. infections by three-quarters ty, said.
ern county of Kent, will be gains. The new measures will be and allowed the city to be “But would I encourage
placed in the top tier, where Operators of pubs and the- reviewed Dec. 16 and lifted moved down from tier three someone to hug and kiss
pubs and restaurants can aters were among those for five days over Christmas to tier two. their elderly relatives? No, I
only serve takeout and deliv- warning that they can’t make across the whole U.K. Dur- Three coronavirus vaccines, would not.”

Sadiq al-Mahdi, Sudan former prime minister, dies of virus

(AP) — Sadiq al-Mahdi, Al-Mahdi was taken to Abu Al-Mahdi was overthrown in He was the great-grandson and Sudanese politics.
Sudan’s last democrati- Dhabi for treatment in early a 1989 Islamist-backed coup of Mohammad Ahmad al- Al-Mahdi also served as
cally elected prime min- November. His body was that brought longtime auto- Mahdi, a religious leader prime minister in 1966-67
ister and leader of the expected to arrive in Su- crat Omar al-Bashir to pow- whose movement waged a before a group of military
country’s largest political dan for burial Friday morn- er. Al-Mahdi’s party allied successful war against Egyp- officers led by Jaafar al-Ni-
party, died of COVID-19 ing, the National Ummah with Sudan’s pro-democracy tian-Ottoman rule in Sudan meiri took over two years
Thursday in a hospital in Party tweeted. It had an- uprising that led the military in the second half of the 19th later and turned the country
the United Arab Emirates, nounced al-Mahdi tested to overthrow al-Bashir in century. into a military dictatorship
his party said. He was 84. positive for the coronavirus April 2019. for nearly two decades. The
on Oct. 29. He studied philosophy, poli- veteran politician was jailed
Sudan has since been ruled tics and economics at Oxford several times and went into
by a transitional military-ci- University. He was both a self-exile for years.
vilian government. Elections politician and a theologian He served as prime minister
could possibly be held in late and authored several books from second time from 1986-
2022. on Islamic law, democracy 89.
Al-Mahdi was one of the
staunchest opponents of Su-
dan’s recent normalization of
ties with Israel, which he dis-
missed as “an apartheid state”
over its treatment of the Pal-
estinians. He also accused
President Donald Trump of
being racist against Muslims
and Black people.
Al-Mahdi was born in De-
cember 1935 in Khartoum’s
sister city of Omdurman.