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- Axios
Brits flock to pubs for first time in months as U.K. lockdown eases
People in England are enjoying some semblance of normalcy — and pouring their first pints in public — after COVID-19 restrictions eased at midnight Monday, allowing non-essential locations like salons, gyms and pubs to reopen for the first time since January.Why it matters: Britain's partial reopening has come amid one of the world's most successful vaccination campaigns, sharply curbing a COVID-19 outbreak that has killed more people than in any other country in Europe.Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.40 million doses have been administered in the U.K., with over 48% of people receiving at least their first dose, according to Bloomberg's vaccine tracker.The next phase in England's reopening roadmap will see the return of indoor entertainment and possibly international travel on May 17, assuming certain criteria are met. The government is aiming to lift all restrictions on social contact on June 21.In photos Shoppers carry bags in central London Monday. Photo: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images A customer drinks in an outdoor seating area in Warwick, U.K., on Monday. Photo: Darren Staples/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesA solid start to the new reality of outdoor dining in Cranleigh this morning. pic.twitter.com/uSSd88nHdV— Martin Bamford (@martinbamford) April 12, 2021 Terry Morris, mayor of Warwick, right, and Mandy Littlejohn, cheers with their drinks in an outdoor seating area set up in the car park of The Old Fourpenny Shop Hotel in Warwick, U.K., on Monday Photo: Darren Staples/Bloomberg via Getty Images A shopper on Oxford Street in London. Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images Customers at the reopening of the Figure of Eight pub, in Birmingham, U.K. Photo: Jacob King/PA Images via Getty Images Customers enjoy a drink at an outside table after the Half Moon pub re-opened in east London Photo: Niklas Hallen'n/AFP via Getty Images John Witts enjoys a drink at the reopening of the Figure of Eight pub, in Birmingham. Photo: Jacob King/PA Images via Getty ImagesLike this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.
- Reuters Videos
Nearly a miillion Hindu devotees join ritual bath
Devotees, ash-smeared naked "naga sadhus" (Hindu holy men), Hindu saints, and members of the transgender community jostled for a dip in the waters of the river many Hindus consider holy, on a day considered auspicious in the Hindu calendar, with few wearing masks.Despite making virus tests mandatory for those entering the area, authorities struggled to implement other strict measures to curb COVID-19 transmissions due to the large numbers.
- The Daily Beast
Brits Get Morning Drunk in the Snow to Celebrate Grand Reopening
ITV NewsIt’s been a long, cold, lonely winter in England.So, as four months of a nationwide lockdown finally came to an end, nothing was going to stop people from enjoying a refreshing pint of beer at the crack of dawn on a Monday morning—not even driving rain, freezing temperatures, and some pretty unseasonal snowfall.Pubs started serving outdoors again as part of a reopening plan that also covers indoor gym sessions, swimming pools, non-essential shops, beauty salons, and, for those who have been gagging to see some sad animals, zoos. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had urged people to “behave responsibly” with their new freedoms but didn’t explicitly say they shouldn’t get drunk in the snow before having breakfast.One pub in the town of Huddersfield was swamped when it opened at the stroke of midnight. “We didn’t even know if anyone was going to come,” said the pub landlord fittingly named Ian Snowball. “It’s in Huddersfield, it’s midnight, it’s freezing cold—but look, everyone has come.”If you thought you were starting early today… 🍻These drinkers in Huddersfield braved the snow to enjoy a beer garden pint at midnight ❄️https://t.co/UASiR7bXEv pic.twitter.com/i2O79eocSR— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) April 12, 2021 One drinker commented matter-of-factly: “It was snowing earlier but I was still going to come out, I just put my coat on.” Another, sitting in a thick jacket next to an icy-looking gin and tonic, made the fair point: “After 14 months of not going anywhere, except funerals, it’s a great place.”Sky News reported that 50 pub-goers headed to the Fox On The Hill pub in south London this morning. The most emotional was perhaps Tony Blake, 59, who gushed to the news network: “I am so happy that it’s open again, it’s unbelievable, I’m so happy.” Student Sasha Carrington, 19, said she planned to stay there for the entire freezing cold day, explaining: “We’ve got our layers on, thermals, we’re going to stay outside.”Pippa Ingram, 51, and Sue Bell, 55, celebrated a chilly seaside pint in Kent, with Ingram describing her first sip in detail. “Absolutely delicious,” she said. “It’s not gonna last long at all! That is banging.” Back in Huddersfield, in footage timestamped at 8:17 a.m., a woman identified only as Sandy was seen having pints with her friends, and she told Good Morning Britain: “It’s not that cold after a while when you’ve sat in the sun.”As pub gardens reopen from today, @NickDixonITV talks to some people who have enjoyed a pint since 8am this morning.They discuss how happy they are to be back in pub gardens following the lockdown.Watch GMB 👉 https://t.co/6iQ6ebeOEQ pic.twitter.com/W0yAai1tGD— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) April 12, 2021 One pub in Coventry appears to have taken things slightly too far. Videos posted online showed more than 100 people lining the street outside the Oak Inn after it publicized its grand plans to open a massive outdoor space with heaters, marquees, and blankets. The pub is now under investigation for its “unmanageable amounts of visitors.”But, largely, the grand reopening has been welcomed as a major landmark—particularly following the success of Britain’s vaccine rollout, which has many hoping that there won’t be another lockdown. Nicholas Hair, landlord of the Kentish Belle in southeast London, told BBC News that there was a “sense of celebration” in the country, adding, “I’m hoping this is a sort of rebirth, and that we’re reopen for the foreseeable.”As for Boris himself, government sources confirmed that the prime minister received a long-awaited haircut on Monday—but his planned trip to the pub has been canceled out of respect for the late Prince Philip.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
- The State
SC can’t house unaccompanied immigrant children, Gov. McMaster orders. Here’s why
McMaster’s order comes as Republicans continue to criticize the Biden administration’s response to undocumented immigration along the southern border.
- Fort Worth Star-Telegram
TCU center Kevin Samuel to test the 2021 NBA Draft waters
Samuel joins Frogs teammate RJ Nembhard in his decision, but both have the option to return to TCU.
- LA Times
Clippers' Paul George is chosen Western Conference player of the week
Paul George scored 32 points in a win Sunday, his third consecutive game with at least 30. It helped earn him Western Conference player of the week.
- Associated Press
Stolarz has 46 saves as Ducks beat Sharks 4-0
Anthony Stolarz made a career-high 46 saves for his third career shutout and the Anaheim Ducks beat the San Jose Sharks 4-0 on Monday night. Alexander Volkov had two goals, Max Comtois had a goal and an assist and Rickard Rakell also scored as the Ducks beat the Sharks handily on their home ice for the second time in less than a week.
- USA TODAY
'This is murder'
Outrage and unrest are growing in Minnesota after the killing of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man. Muslims worldwide begin to observe the holy month of Ramadan. It's Monday's news.
- Raleigh News and Observer
Panthers are giving Sam Darnold a chance to succeed, fair or not
Matt Rhule did not name Sam Darnold the team’s starting quarterback during Monday’s virtual press conference.
- Reuters
Tunisian journalists protest over new head of state news agency
TUNIS (Reuters) -Tunisian police on Tuesday clashed with journalists at the state news agency demonstrating against a new chief executive whose appointment they see as an attempt to undermine editorial independence. Dozens of protesting journalists had gathered in front of Tunis Afrique Presse's (TAP) headquarters to try to stop Kamel Ben Younes from entering, but police later forced a way in. "TAP is free and police must go," the journalists chanted.
- The Week
Israeli media suggests country was behind Iranian nuclear facility blackout
A whole lot happened in relation to Iran's nuclear program this weekend. For starters, on Sunday, Iran's underground Natanz facility started up new advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium more quickly. Hours later, a "suspicious" blackout struck the facility. Tehran claims there wasn't any lasting damage or pollution, but Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's civilian nuclear program, called the power outage "nuclear terrorism" and details remain scarce. Israeli media outlets, including Haaretz, are indicating the blackout was the result of an Israeli cyberattack, the latest sign of escalation between the regional rivals. The Associated Press notes these reports do not offer sourcing, but "Israeli media maintains a close relationship with [Israel's] military and intelligence," so, when coupled with past allegations of Israel targeting Iran's nuclear program, the possibility seems legitimate. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Israel meeting with his counterpart, Benny Gantz, who pledged to cooperate with the U.S. "to ensure that any new agreement with Iran will secure the vital interests of the world and the United States, prevent a dangerous arms race in our region, and protect the State of Israel." World powers, including the U.S., will continue to negotiate with Tehran over its nuclear deal next week in Vienna, though it's unclear how the blackout will affect the talks, if it all. More stories from theweek.comTrump finally jumps the sharkBiden gets positive GOP reviews after infrastructure meeting, a hard no on corporate tax hike7 brutally funny cartoons about Mitch McConnell's corporate hypocrisy
- BBC
Taiwan: 'Record number' of China jets enter air zone
Beijing sends 25 military aircraft into Taiwan as the US warns against an 'increasingly aggressive' China.
- National Review
Anthony Fauci Has Worn Out His Welcome
More than a year ago, Americans welcomed Anthony Fauci into their homes as a sober scientist who was helping them make sense of a deadly new virus. But he has worn out that welcome. It’s true that Fauci has enjoyed an illustrious career, advising every president since Ronald Reagan and winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008. There’s much to admire in his overall leadership since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, as director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he has a serious job that’s not supposed to involve being a media spokesman so ubiquitous that it’s hard to believe he ever turns down any media requests. As he’s maintained a media schedule worthy of a serious presidential candidate or an actor in a new major studio release, Fauci has gradually stopped standing apart from the contentious debate about the pandemic, lockdowns, restrictions, precautions, and what is safe and what is risky. Instead, he has become part of the acrimony, offering murky and sometimes contradictory recommendations. This goes well beyond his initially discouraging the use of masks in January and February 2020, like most U.S. public health officials, or his mid-March 2020 reassurance: “The guidelines are a 15-day trial guideline to be reconsidering. It isn’t that these guidelines are now going to be in effect until July.” Fauci doesn’t write or establish the quarantine policies being enforced by cities and states; he can only advise other people in and out of government. But his voice carries a lot of weight, and, more or less willingly, he has become the face of America’s quarantine policies. Frustratingly, his perspective always seem to be that the right time to open up is another six weeks from now, no matter how low caseloads get or how much the national vaccination program accelerates. And it’s hard to shake the sense that Fauci makes recommendations based on how he thinks people will react. Fauci admitted in December that he had changed his assessments about herd immunity, based on what he thought the public could handle hearing. In the pandemic’s early days, Fauci tended to cite the same 60 to 70 percent estimate that most experts did, but Fauci gradually boosted it to 85 percent. In an interview with the New York Times’ Donald McNeil Jr., Fauci “acknowledged that he had slowly but deliberately been moving the goal posts. He is doing so, he said, partly based on new science, and partly on his gut feeling that the country is finally ready to hear what he really thinks.” At the beginning of March, Fauci forcefully criticized the state of Texas for ending its statewide mask mandate, declaring, “It’s risky and could set us back to a place that’s even worse than where we are now . . . and lead to additional surges.” And yet, Texas has seen its caseload continue to decline. When asked about the lack of an increase in that state, he answered, “You know, there are a lot of things that go into that. I mean, when you say that they’ve had a lot of the activity on the outside like ball games, I’m not really quite sure. It could be they’re doing things outdoors.” Earlier this month, after GOP lawmakers asked Fauci about the risk of outbreaks in migrant detention facilities, he said, “I have nothing to do with the border. . . . Having me down at the border, that’s really not what I do.” Except Fauci has weighed in on travel restrictions and border closures plenty of times in the past year. It’s self-evidently obvious that having lots of migrants of all ages cramped into detention facilities is a formula for a rapid spread of the virus. Fauci just didn’t want to criticize the Biden administration, so he dodged the question. But perhaps most frustrating is Fauci’s recent comments suggesting that getting vaccinated doesn’t alter the risk of catching COVID-19 much and can’t justify changes in behavior. Fauci said that even though he’s vaccinated, he still won’t eat indoors at a restaurant, go to a movie theater, or “go into an indoor, crowded place where people are not wearing masks.” He said he still won’t be traveling, either. Vaccinated people are protected against serious health problems from COVID-19 and we’ve known for a month that vaccinated people, if infected, shed dramatically less virus — perhaps 75 percent to 90 percent. If results like that don’t make going to a restaurant or movie theater safe, what will? If getting vaccinated doesn’t allow you to return to something like normality, what’s the point? We can overlook the Hollywood-style poolside photo shoot, or his unmasking while watching a baseball game. But Fauci has turned into the perpetually pessimistic, overcautious, position-shifting, administration-pleasing face of the pandemic recovery. At this point, he’d do himself a favor by sitting out the next opportunity to appear on a TV show or podcast and focus on his day job.
- BBC
David Beckham joins Disney+ for grassroots football show
The former England and Manchester Utd star will mentor young players for the series Save Our Squad.
- INSIDER
Matthew Lewis says Alan Rickman took him aside for career advice on the last day of 'Harry Potter' filming
Neville Longbottom actor Lewis worked with Rickman for 10 years, but it wasn't until the final day of shooting that they connected.
- TheGrio
Officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright identified as Kim Potter
The officer who shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright has been identified as Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran with the Brooklyn Center, Minnesota Police Department. In the body camera footage shown at a Monday press conference, Potter can be heard shouting “Taser,” three times, then she fired a shot. “It is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet,” Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said Monday.
- NBC News
Venomous viper bites worker at San Diego Zoo
The worker was taken to a hospital for evaluation and medical care, the zoo said. The employee's condition has not been released.
- The Week
Biden gets positive GOP reviews after infrastructure meeting, a hard no on corporate tax hike
President Biden hosted a bipartisan group of eight lawmakers in the White House on Monday evening to discuss his $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan, and Republican attendees said afterward the president seemed genuinely interested in their input. "I'm prepared to negotiate as to the extent of my infrastructure project, as well as how we pay for it," Biden said in the two-hour Oval Office meeting. "Everyone acknowledges we need a significant increase in infrastructure." "Those are all the exact words that I wanted to hear going into the meeting," Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told The Associated Press. "And so that was really encouraging." At the very least, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) added, "Nobody stormed out yelling 'no.'" Biden said he is serious about seeking bipartisan support for the bill — "I'm not big on window-dressing, as you've observed," he said — but the Republicans in the meeting repeated objections about the ambitious scope of Biden's proposal, his expansive definition of infrastructure, the price tag, and especially Biden's plan to pay for the bill by raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, from 21 percent. Some Republican participants suggested raising the gas tax. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, said Biden was "highly engaged" and the meeting went "well," but reversing the GOP's corporate tax cut is a nonstarter. "I view the 2017 tax bill as one of my signature achievements in my entire career," Wicker said. "It would be an almost impossible sell for the president to come to a bipartisan agreement that included the undoing of that signature." Cedric Richmond, the White House director of public engagement, said "no one in business" wanted the corporate rate lowered from 35 percent all the way to 21 percent rate in the GOP's top-heavy tax overhaul, and he's reminding business leaders "we would be bringing the rate back to the neighborhood they wanted in the first place. And at the same time, we could fix infrastructure." Biden and his fellow Democrats have made clear they are willing to try to go it alone if there's no GOP interest in good-faith negotiations, but that would leave no room for error in the ideologically disparate Democratic caucus, with its razor-thin control of Congress. At the same time, Biden's proposal is broadly popular even among Republican voters, as is paying for it by taxing corporations. More stories from theweek.comTrump finally jumps the shark7 brutally funny cartoons about Mitch McConnell's corporate hypocrisyWill McConnell 'grovel' before Trump to unite the Republican Party?
- INSIDER
TikTok star Justine Paradise accuses YouTuber Jake Paul of sexual assault, says he did not ask for consent
The TikTok personality Paradise, 24, accused Paul of forcing her to perform oral sex on him, despite her saying "no" multiple times.
- USA TODAY
Fact check: No evidence of miscarriage surge since vaccine rollout
An article from an alternative media site claims miscarriages have increased by 366% since the vaccine rollout. The claim is missing context.