The European Union said Friday it’s planning to stop air travel from southern Africa to counter the spread of a new COVID-19 variant as the 27-nation block battles a massive spike in cases.
A lockdown imposed on the three coastal towns on the Spanish island of La Palma was ended on Wednesday, as officials announced that toxic fumes had partially dissipated amid the ongoing eruption from the Cumbre Vieja volcano.
Several days ago, officials mandated a lockdown for the coastal towns, telling residents to remain inside as lava reaching the ocean sent clouds of thick fumes into the air, threatening the health of citizens.
Miguel Angel Morcuende, the technical director of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan, said the decision to end the restriction came after the cloud dissipated. However, he warned that individuals in coastal areas should still wear masks to “stay protected” and “prevent any problem.”
Despite the stay-at-home order being lifted, La Palma’s airport will remain closed, as workers attempt to remove tons of black volcanic ash that has covered parts of the runway.
Carmen Lopez, from the National Geographic Institute’s geophysical monitoring program, warned that, unless the eruption begins to diminish, “it is most likely to keep affecting” the area’s ability to operate effectively.
La Palma is currently experiencing its longest eruption in 375 years, with lava flowing from the volcano for the past 67 days, with concerns that it is not showing signs of abating.
Since the Cumbre Vieja volcano began erupting on September 19, it has covered over 1,000 hectares of land on the island, damaging or destroying around 2,700 properties and forcing thousands to flee from the territory.
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 26 (IPS) – When Fidelis Adele, the CEO of Freetown-based Solid Graphics, a printing and communications company, needed to order some printing equipment from Nigeria in September, he paid an extra $165 on top of a $10,000 bank transfer to the seller. Yet it took three days for the money transferred in Sierra Leone to be credited to the beneficiary’s account in Nigeria.
The World Health Organization is holding an emergency meeting on Friday to review the variant. While it’s too soon to tell exactly how the new variant functions, virologists are rushing to learn more.
Turkish riot police unleashed tear gas to disperse a large crowd of demonstrators protesting violence against women in Istanbul, as well as the government’s withdrawal from an international treaty devoted to combating it.
The massive group of protesters, reportedly numbering in the thousands, marched to Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Thursday to mark the ‘International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.’ They met a heavy police presence in the square, which was barricaded off by officers clad in heavy riot gear, who proceeded to fire tear gas on the crowd after ordering it to disperse.
İstiklal Caddesi’nde polis, 25 Kasım Kadına Yönelik Şiddete Karşı Uluslararası Mücadele Günü’nde bir araya gelen kadınlara biber gazı ile saldırdı!https://t.co/6eQcC3219ypic.twitter.com/rvylUo9414
Scuffles with police were captured in videos circulating online, showing officers moving in on the demonstrators to clear them from the area as tear gas wafts through the air.
On the Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, state violence is practiced against women protestors by state Police. #Istanbul#Turkey pic.twitter.com/H1pD6Z9tcT
Protesters were also seen carrying a colorful assortment of signs and banners, some even toting flares, while others chanted anti-government slogans and demanded an end to what’s been dubbed by some activists as ‘femicide.’ Some 345 women in Turkey have been killed in acts of gender-based violence so far this year, just shy of the 410 reported in 2020, according to ‘We Will Stop Femicide,’ a women’s rights group.
in the face of intense police presence, protesters gather on istiklal to call for an end to violence against women pic.twitter.com/xr0nRMcWmB
The protest, which was mirrored on a smaller scale in other cities across the country, comes after the Turkish government formally withdrew from an international treaty meant to address violence against women in July. Known as the Istanbul Convention, the pact was originally negotiated in the same city in 2011, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to pull out of the deal has been sharply criticized both by local activists as well as foreign leaders, with US President Joe Biden dubbing the move “deeply disappointing.”
Ankara, for its part, claimed the convention had been “hijacked” by “people attempting to normalize homosexuality,” which it said was “incompatible with Turkey’s social and family values.” Nonetheless, the government insisted it would not “give up on its fight against domestic violence” and would “continue protecting the safety and the rights of all women.”
