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Europeans have decided COVID-19 is over. It isn’t.

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Europeans have decided COVID-19 is over. It isn’t.

It is official: COVID-19 is over. Or is it?

After two dramatic years plagued with shock, anxiousness, chaos, outrage, fatigue and, for probably the most half, easy boredom, Europeans seem to have determined to collectively transfer on from the deadly pandemic that upended each single side of their every day lives, triggered a once-in-a-lifetime financial disaster and ceaselessly reworked skilled and private habits.

The continent has had sufficient of journey restrictions, metropolis curfews, enterprise closures and QR-powered passports. The masks is off and the music is in: the Venice Carnival, the Glastonbury Pageant and the Munich Oktoberfest are all again, anxious to make up for the time misplaced in hibernation.

The sudden shift was a very long time coming: ever for the reason that first wave of coronavirus infections started to wane in mid-2020, Europeans have been impatiently ready for the right likelihood to show the web page and erase all nasal swabs from reminiscence.

However the sought-after transition was repeatedly hijacked by the emergence of recent and more and more contagious virus variants and the next re-establishment of lockdown measures, an on-and-off dynamic that quickly produced a widespread and dizzying feeling of déjà vu.

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When information arrived that the extremely infectious Omicron variant was in reality inflicting comparatively gentle and manageable signs, many noticed the top nearer than ever. 

Emboldened by a profitable vaccination roll-out, European international locations began to step by step carry guidelines, curbs and laws till they turned marginal and, in some instances, symbolic.

Spain, one of many hardest-hit nations by the pandemic, revoked its two-year-long decree that imposed necessary mask-wearing in outdoor and indoor areas, relegating the observe to simply public transport and healthcare premises.

Austria repealed its so-called 3G guidelines (vaccinated, recovered or examined) to enter eating places, bars and golf equipment whereas France utterly abolished its inexperienced cross, a pioneering initiative that impressed different international locations to comply with swimsuit however fuelled weeks of in style discontent.

Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Eire and the UK additionally moved to tug the plug on all or most restrictions.

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Denmark took issues a step additional when it turned the primary European nation to halt its COVID-19 vaccination programme, arguing the inoculation protection – over 82% of the inhabitants are double-jabbed – is sufficient to comprise the pandemic at its current stage.

“We’re in place. Spring has come and now we have good management of the epidemic, which appears to be subsiding,” mentioned Bolette Søborg, unit supervisor on the nation’s Nationwide Board of Well being.

The Danish authority plans to renew the programme once more in autumn, when infections are anticipated to rise and new variants would possibly unfold.

The cascade of developments led the European Fee to declare the pandemic had entered a new chapter, one during which counting each single case is rendered redundant. As a substitute of huge testing, the chief advisable, international locations ought to deal with focused and dependable samples to detect new variants.

“We’re getting into one other part of the pandemic,” mentioned Stella Kyriakides, EU Commissioner for well being, in late April. “A brand new part that requires us to rethink how we handle the virus.”

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Kyriakides inspired the marketing campaign of booster doses to hold on and pointedly famous that over 90 million of EU residents stay unvaccinated.

“A nice deal has been achieved, however preparedness and structural resilience are key,” she added.

Notably, the Commissioner mentioned that between 60 and 80% of the bloc’s inhabitants are estimated to have been contaminated by the virus at one level over the previous two years.

The boundaries of human resilience

The sheer numbers elevate the query on how a lot tolerance Europeans have left to deal with a illness that has achieved such diploma of omnipresence of their every day lives.

Governments have grow to be aware of the narrowing will of residents to maintain the burden of restrictions, a realisation made evident by how rapidly international locations moved to carry the distinctive measures as quickly because the Omicron wave peaked in January.

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Media too seem like in a rush to go away the virus behind and change up the dialog.

The pandemic has been pushed out of the entrance web page to make approach for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, worldwide sanctions and hovering power costs. Google Tendencies exhibits a gradual lower in curiosity for the time period “COVID-19” throughout the most important European international locations.

However this joint effort to make a contemporary begin hides two uncomfortable truths.

First, the pandemic is just not over. Europeans proceed to succumb to the illness every day, even when hospitals are not overwhelmed (greater than 13,000 deaths have been registered in April).

In Asia, Omicron is wreaking havoc, with China imposing a draconian zero-COVID technique that’s igniting public anger and disrupting world provide chains. And around the globe, vaccine inequality stays alarmingly excessive: solely 15% of individuals in low-income international locations have obtained the primary dose.

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“Though reported instances and deaths are declining globally, and several other international locations have lifted restrictions, the pandemic is much from over – and it’ll not be over anyplace till it’s over all over the place,” mentioned Dr Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, director of the World Well being Group (WHO), in early March whereas marking two years for the reason that worldwide physique outlined COVID-19 as a pandemic.

The second reality masked beneath this sudden transition is the truth that some persons are neither keen nor prepared to maneuver on from the virus, a minimum of not so quick. In some situations, the trauma of dwelling two years in a state of fixed alarm can show paralysing, regardless of the general outlook giving trigger for optimism.

“The final impression is that persons are transferring on actually rapidly and behaving as if COVID did not exist anymore. I believe, nevertheless, that this sort of broad imaginative and prescient is just not frequent to everyone,” Carmine Pariante, professor of organic psychiatry at King’s Faculty London, informed Euronews.

“The extent of hysteria within the inhabitants about COVID remains to be very excessive. There are lots of people who’re nonetheless combating socialising in teams, going to eating places, going to crowded locations. And even when they’re doing it, they really feel quite a lot of anxiousness about it. So the normalisation can be progressive.”

Psychological well being has been one of many important casualties of the virus. Within the first yr of the pandemic, world prevalence of hysteria and despair elevated by a surprising 25% price, in accordance with a scientific temporary launched in March by the WHO.

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The organisation cites the “unprecedented stress attributable to social isolation” as the driving force behind the worrying development, coupled with loneliness, concern of an infection, grief after bereavement, monetary issues and, within the case of important employees, bodily exhaustion.

These psychological well being scars can be long-term and far-reaching, specialists warn, and can persist inside our societies as infections proceed to drop. It is going to be as much as governments to determine how a lot prominence – and, most significantly, funding – they provide to the virus and its ripple results within the coming years.

These political selections will in flip decide how briskly the collective consciousness strikes on from the lethal illness and enters the post-COVID period, Pariante mentioned.

“If [national] leaders drop COVID-19 utterly from the agenda, then, I believe, we are going to overlook it too,” the professor famous.

“However there can be a lot of susceptible individuals who can be affected by the implications of the pandemic for a very long time, even when society total might bounce again.”

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Kendrick Lamar Unveils New Verse in Drake Diss ‘Euphoria’ at ‘Pop Out’ Concert in Los Angeles

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Kendrick Lamar Unveils New Verse in Drake Diss ‘Euphoria’ at ‘Pop Out’ Concert in Los Angeles

Kendrick Lamar did not half-step during the opening of his “Pop Out” concert in Los Angeles on Wednesday night: He not only opened his set with the Drake diss “Euphoria,” he rolled out a new verse for it:

““Give me Tupac’s ring back and I might give you a little respect.”

The reference, of course, is to a ring previously owned by the late Tupac Shakur that was purchased at an auction by an undisclosed buyer who was revealed last year to be Drake. While it’s just one new verse in a bruising battle between the two top rappers that was uncontestedly won by Lamar — and which was essentially called off after a series of intruders tried to break into Drake’s Toronto home — perhaps there is more to come.

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Variety will have its full review of the concert — which featured guest appearances from Dr. Dre, Tyler, the Creator, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul and others — in the coming hours. The concert was livestreamed by Amazon Music and its hip-hop/ R&B brand Rotation as part of the company’s “Forever the Influence” celebration of Black musicians and creatives for Black Music Month.

The concert, titled “The Pop Out — Ken and Friends,” takes its name from a different song in the feud, Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” where he raps, “Sometimes you gotta pop out and show n—s / Certified boogeyman, I’m the one that up the score with ’em.” The song was a diss directed at Drake that released a month ago and has continued on to scale the top of the charts, arguably becoming the most successful of the songs released between Drake and Lamar.

Throughout the battle, the two rappers went at each other’s physical appearances, lobbed accusations of pedophilia and made claims of hidden children. It ended with Drake’s “The Heart Part 6,” a play on Lamar’s long-running song series of the same name, and showed that Drake was tiring of the beef between them.

Drake recently made a reference to the battle with a verse on Sexyy Red’s “U My Everything,” where he rapped over producer Metro Boomin’s diss beat “BBL Drizzy.” Metro helped facilitate the start of the beef with Lamar’s appearance on his song “Like That,” a collaboration with Future that came out in March.

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Israeli strike kills Hamas squad commander, sniper who participated in Oct. 7 massacre: IDF

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Israeli strike kills Hamas squad commander, sniper who participated in Oct. 7 massacre: IDF

A Hamas squad commander and sniper who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel was killed in a strike in northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday.

Ahmed Hassan Salame Alsauarka was killed in a “precise and targeted” strike conducted by the Israeli Air Force in the Beit Hanoun area, the IDF said.

Alsauarka was a squad commander in Hamas’ Nukhba Forces, which carried out attacks in southern Israel during the Oct. 7 massacre. 

He also “led and directed sniper activity” in the area where he was killed and “took part in Hamas’ attacks on IDF troops,” according to the IDF.

3 OF HAMAS LEADER ISMAIL HANIYEH’S ‘TERRORIST’ SONS KILLED BY ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE, IDF SAYS

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Hamas squad commander and sniper Ahmed Hassan Salame Alsauarka was killed in a “precise and targeted” Israeli strike in northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Thursday. (Israel Defense Forces/Screenshot)

The deadly strike on Alsauarka was conducted following intelligence gathered by the IDF and the Israeli Securities Agency.

After an extensive search and measures taken to mitigate harm to civilians, the IDF said Alsauarka was identified by troops and then killed. The military noted there were no civilians injured during the strike.

NETANYAHU RESPONDS TO STRIKE THAT KILLED HAMAS TERROR LEADERS, CIVILIANS: ‘INVESTIGATING THE INCIDENT’

Smoke after strike that killed Hamas squad commander

The Israel Defense Forces said the deadly strike on Alsauarka was conducted in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza, where he reportedly led and directed sniper activity for Hamas. (Israel Defense Forces/Screenshot)

Israeli troops are still operating in the central Gaza Strip, according to the military. In the past day, a mortar shell launch post was struck by IDF aerial and artillery forces and two terrorists were targeted using an Iron Sting precision missile.

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The IDF said troops remain in the Rafah area conducting “precise, intelligence-based, operational activity.” 

Several terrorists have been killed in “close-quarters encounters” in the past 24 hours and targeted raids have revealed rocket launchers and other weapons, the IDF said of the activity in Rafah.

Fox News’ Yonat Friling contributed to this report.

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As Putin visits, Vietnam says will boost ties with Russia for global peace

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As Putin visits, Vietnam says will boost ties with Russia for global peace

Vietnamese President To Lam has welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hanoi by promising to boost ties for the peace and stability of the region as well as the world.

Putin, who was received with a 21-gun salute during a military ceremony on Thursday, said strengthening a comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam was one of Russia’s priorities.

The visit has resulted in a sharp rebuke from the United States. Russia faces a slew of US-led sanctions for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes. The Kremlin rejected it as “null and void”, stressing that Moscow does not recognise the court’s jurisdiction.

Reporting from Hanoi, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng said that Vietnam was “very keen to make … Putin feel welcome but at the same time they do have strong relationships with China and the US they want to protect”.

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The Russian leader concluded a defence pact with North Korea a day earlier. But in Vietnam, he only signed deals to further cooperation on education, science and technology, energy, climate change and health.

“Weapons will be discussed but not those going to Russia but those coming into Vietnam,” Cheng said. “The Vietnam military is still very heavily reliant on Russian-made arms, but they found it increasingly difficult to get them, particularly since the war in Ukraine started.”

“So, they will be wanting some guarantees, but there is also pressure on the Vietnamese military to diversify their military reliance on Russia. That is probably a theme for the trip.”

Warm welcome

Putin arrived at Vietnam’s Presidential Palace on Thursday, where he was greeted by schoolchildren waving Russian and Vietnamese flags.

He shook hands with and embraced Lam before a bilateral meeting and a joint briefing to the media.

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The Russian leader is also scheduled to meet Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong – Vietnam’s most powerful politician – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and parliamentary chief Tran Thanh Man.

Putin’s recent visits to China and now North Korea and Vietnam are attempts to “break the international isolation”, Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, told The Associated Press news agency.

The US and its allies have expressed growing concerns over a possible arms arrangement in which North Korea provides Russia with badly needed munitions for its use in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons and missile programme.

Both countries deny accusations of weapons transfers, which would violate multiple United Nations Security Council sanctions.

Meanwhile, Russia is important to Vietnam for two reasons, Giang said: It is the biggest supplier of military equipment to the Southeast Asian nation, and Russian oil exploration technologies help maintain its sovereignty claims in the contested South China Sea.

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“Russia is signalling that it is not isolated in Asia despite the Ukraine war, and Vietnam is reinforcing a key traditional relationship even as it also diversifies ties with newer partners,” Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow with the Wilson Center’s Asia Program, told AP.

‘Friendly relations’

Vietnam and Russia have had diplomatic relations since 1950, and this year marks 30 years of a treaty establishing “friendly relations” between them.

Evidence of this long relationship and its influence can be seen in Vietnamese cities like the capital, where the many Soviet-style apartment blocks are now dwarfed by skyscrapers and a statue of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, stands in a park where children skateboard every evening.

Many of the Communist Party’s top leaders in Vietnam studied in Soviet universities, including party chief Trong.

Bilateral trade between Russia and Vietnam was valued at $3.6bn in 2023, compared with $171bn with China and $111bn with the US.

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Since the early 2000s, Russia accounted for about 80 percent of Vietnam’s arms imports. This has been declining over the years due to Vietnamese attempts to diversify its supplies. But to entirely wean itself off Russia will take time, said Giang.

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