Today I am taking a bit of a different approach to showing the new, instead of lots of text I am going to try and narrow down news into the main points as best I can from articles I have read. I may include some of my own opinions after all as that is what a blog is all about – it’s about expressing your views, and that’s really what I want to get better at doing.
UK Today in Coronavirus
What Jobs have Highest COVID-19 Death Rates?
- Data reveals that men in low-skilled jobs, or in caring, leisure or other services roles had highest rates of death from Coronavirus in England and Wales from March-December 2020.
- The Office for National Statistics revealed 7,961 COVID-related deaths in working age population (20-64 years) registered between 9th March-28th December 2020.
- Two-thirds of these deaths among men – 5,128.
- Men in elementary occupations, such as processing plants, security guards, chefs and taxi drivers worst effected (699 deaths). Caring, leisure and other service occupation come after that (258 deaths).
- Female worker COVID-related deaths are highest in assembly line and routine machine operation jobs, and care workers and home carers.
- Rates of COVID-related deaths in male and femalee social care workers are statistically significantly higher than the wider working population.
- Nurses, nursing auxiliaries and assistants also have elevated rates of COVID-related deaths.
Moderna to Test Vaccine Against South African Variant
- Moderna has said it will test the jab against the South African variant of the virus.
- It comes after other tests showed a six-fold reduction of the ability of antibodies, that are produced in response to the vaccine, to kill the new version of the virus.
- In response to this Moderna will test a third dose on top of the two routine doses to see if it will boost the immune response.
- The company also made a new tweaked version of the vaccine with genetic material from South Africa variant.
- UK has ordered 17 million doses of the Moderna vaccine which will begin being delivered in the Spring.
- Tests showed these vaccines are still effective against the England-Kent variant of the virus, which has became the dominant variant in the United Kingdom, which is far more contagious and possibly even a bit more deadly.
Netherland’s Anti-curfew Riots
- The Netherland’s has faced a third night of protests against new strict coronavirus measures, such as a curfew being introduced, the first seen since World War 2.
- Just like previous nights, some of these protests turned to rioting and looting in a number of cities, with riot police having to be used to bring back control. Tear gas and water cannon have been used.
- Rioters have looted shops and businesses, thrown fireworks, rocks, smashed windows and attacked vehicles and police. During the weekend a temporary COVID-19 testing station was also burned down.
- Hundreds have already been arrested over the previous two nights of rioting and at least 70 more were arrested on the third night. Further protests and in-turn rioting are expected in the coming days.
- It is suspected that social media, such as Telegram, are being used to organise and call for riots. Politicians, including the caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte has denounced the rioting as criminal behaviour, and not protests.
My Opinion: Obviously I do not support any rioting and agree that it is simply criminal behaviour. Protests are more of a sticky situation due to the coronavirus, but I’d say large-scale protests at most are not responsible due to the risk of increasing the spread from having so many people together. There can be other safer ways of protesting such as via online or by coordinating complaints and petitions to politicians and other officials. Once the vaccine is widespread I may come around to supporting reasonable protests if there was no movement towards the gradual reduction of coronavirus-related restrictions. The rioting seen is merely opportunistic hooliganism that has little to do with being simply annoyed at coronavirus restrictions, in the end such people are only harming their own community and economy.
Project Mosquito – New unmanned combat aircraft
- New unmanned combat aircraft project in Northern Ireland, supporting 100 jobs.
- Aircraft nicknamed loyal wingman, costing £30 million of government investment.
- Project being lead by Spirit AeroSystems in Belfast.
- Aircraft designed to fly at high-speeds alongside fighter jets. Aircraft will be armed with missles, surveillance, and electronic warfare technology
- The aircraft will be the first uncrewed platform. It will be able to target and shoot down enemy aircraft and survive surface-to-air missiles.
- Project will aim to produce full-scale flight-test programme by 2023.
My Opinion: My views on such things are, is it going to be used simply for defense or in useless wars elsewhere? I am strongly anti-war and so I purely hope such an aircraft will only be used in defensive capacity, but I am highly skeptical this will remain the case. I’d rather government investment go to things that further benefit far more people economically. The aircraft does sound cool of course and it sounds like an exciting futuristic project, but I’m not going to be happy about something made to kill and maim in some foreign country.
India-China Clash
- Indian officials confirmed that Indian and Chinese soldiers clashed along the countries’ disputed border, amidst a months-long standoff.
- Indian security officials say on Wednesday that at least 18 Chinese soldiers tried to cross into Indian-claimed territory but were blocked by Indian soldiers, leading to clashes using sticks and stones.
- Indian army says the clash was a minor face-off and was resolved by local commanders via established protocols.
- Violence took place in Naku La area of Sikkim, only 4-days before the two countries held talks on Sunday to end tensions in the Ladakh Region.
- Talks concluded with aim to push for early disengagement of frontline troops.
My Opinion: My view of this as with any possible conflict is hope for an entirely peaceful conclusion and not a war. I do know of the war they had fought previously which went badly for India. But any such war could easily become very large and out of control between two such powerful nations effecting the region very badly and even having possible global impacts, for all interests involved no one in their right mind wants to see a devastating war over a piece of land, much of which are really just remote mountainous land in the middle of nowhere. It is one of two dangerous flashpoints related to India, the other being between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
Nicola Sturgeon Seeking Legal Referendum on Scottish Independence
- First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said Boris Johnson is afriad of democracy for refusing to allow a 2nd referendum on Scottish Independence.
- Boris Johnson has stated he thinks there should be a 40-year gap from the 2014 Scottish referendum until the next one.
- 11-point plan revealed for path to a legal referendum.
- SNP wants to have a legal referendum held after the pandemic if there is pro-independence majority after May Scottish parliament elections.
- UK Government attempts to block legality of referendum in courts will be vigorously opposed.
- For now polls show support for Scottish independence, in some cases by 52-48 ironically.
- Opposition parties claim SNP is putting independence ahead of pandemic response.
My Opinion: Whether I support Scottish independence or not is irrelevant to the fact that a legal referendum is very unlikely to be granted and that ultimately I believe the SNP’s 11-point plan will fail, even if voters still support independence and give the SNP another majority after the May elections. I think that Boris Johnson should give them a referendum since polls show many want one and that there is favour for independence itself, but it is clear he very likely will not. So it is perhaps time for the SNP to take a stronger stance and push towards a referendum purely themselves, committing to holding an advisory referendum at the very least would be a step in that direction to really show the UK Government and others that people want independence in Scotland. I would obviously be sad to see Scotland leave the union, it would be a massive loss for both sides, but unfortunately BREXIT has made the situation more definitive on the question of independence for many in Scotland. But I think the SNP needs to realize they need to do much, much more towards their goal, rather than trying to get a unionist jurisdiction to side with them.
Italian Prime Minister Conte Resigns
- The country’s President announced Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has resigned, as was expected since yesterday.
- Conte had survived two confidence votes last week, but lost absolute majority in the Senate yesterday after the former Prime Minister and centrist ally Matteo Renzi defected.
- What that meant is legislative decisions and other actions on the coronavirus would now be harder for Conte’s government to pass.
- Conte’s centre-left coalition had lasted for 16 months but had faced continued internal disagreements – it came together after the previous 15-month-long government he headed with the populist 5-star Movement in coalition with the controversial right-wing party League of Matteo Salvini fell apart.
- The coalition fell apart after Matteo Salvini pulled support from the coalition in a failed bid to win the premiership himself and lead the country.
- Conte will now lead a caretaker government as the country’s President attempts to form a new government – if the president is unable to do so he may dissolve parliament for early fresh elections.
- It is possible the country’s President could again ask Conte to form a new coalition and it could be possible that former Prime Minister Silvio Belursconi’s bloc may be involved in such a coalition – Belursconi has been one of Italy’s longest serving leaders in modern times but he was marred by corruption.
My Opinion: I do not have too many informed views on Italian politics and so I will mostly be observing. Obviously what’s most important for the country as any is to focus on the coronavirus pandemic and find ways to get their economy back on track for the future, which has been devastated by the pandemic. I will be interested to see if there is an election, how it may turn out for 5-star and League and if they’d be able to form a government again, a prospect that frightens many Euro-friendly liberals. Seeing Mr. Belursconi reenter government for a 3rd time would also be quite something.
I hope you enjoyed this new version of looking into events. I believe the whole point of many blogs is to express your views and feelings of subjects of politics and world affairs and so that is what I am doing here, rather than just stating news like what I had been doing – and only slipping a few small bits of opinion in from time to time.
I also like this more simplified bullet-point format of the key parts.
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