Here are the coronavirus morning headlines for Dominicus, Jan 23, every bit thousands of people in capital cities across United kingdom and Europe protested confronting vaccine passports and other requirements governments have imposed in the hope of ending the coronavirus pandemic.

Demonstrations took place in London, Helsinki, Paris and Stockholm. Hundreds of people likewise took to the street of Cardiff. Read more nearly that protest here.

In London, NHS workers joined anti-vaxxers as they protested against mandatory vaccine rules which will see those refusing vaccinations being sacked - with formal warnings of dismissal to be issued by health bosses from next month. Sentry the sassy way Cardiff diners reacted to protest hither.

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In Sweden, where vaccine certificates are required to attend indoor events with more than 50 people, some 3,000 demonstrators marched though central Stockholm and assembled in a main square for a protest organised by the Frihetsrorelsen, or Freedom Movement.

Swedish media reported that representatives from the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Motility attended the action with a banner. Constabulary closely monitor the group, which has been associated with violent behaviour at demonstrations. Swedish security police force had warned that correct-wing extremists might take role in Saturday's protest. No major incidents or clashes were reported by late afternoon.

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A similar sit-in with some 1,000 participants was held too in Gothenburg, Sweden'due south second-largest city.

The Finnish government authorised local and regional authorities only earlier Christmas to introduce "all-encompassing and full measures" in response to rise virus cases involving the Omicron variant. The restrictions included limiting or prohibiting events, moving university classes online, limiting restaurant service and closing venues where people have a higher hazard of exposure. Restaurants and events are allowed to require vaccine passports.

Police said some four,000 people marched on Sat through the streets of key Helsinki to protest. A group called Globe Wide Demonstration organised the protest. No unrest or violence was reported to police.

Deputy stands up for Boris Johnson

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has said that Boris Johnson "has taken a few hits but he'll come out fighting".

It comes as Boris Johnson faces calls for an inquiry after a Tory MP said she was told that she was sacked from her ministerial mail service considering her Muslim faith was "making colleagues uncomfortable".

Nusrat Ghani said that when she lost her job as a transport minister in 2020, a Government whip told her "Muslimness" had been raised equally an outcome at a Downing Street coming together to hash out the reshuffle.

Writing in The Sunday on Sunday, Mr Raab said: "In less than iii years in office, the Prime number Minister has faced ii of the nation'due south biggest challenges in our post-war history: Delivering Brexit and getting united states of america through the worst pandemic in living retention.

"Information technology has not been like shooting fish in a barrel. He has taken some knocks. Merely the thing about this Prime number Minister is that he never stays on the ropes for long."

Mr Raab said the "culture in No ten needs to be addressed to meet the standards the public rightly look" but added that the Prime Minister "is in your corner".

Ms Ghani's explosive merits in an interview with The Sunday Times brought immediate condemnation from Conservative MPs and opposition parties alike, with demands for an enquiry.

Education Secretarial assistant Nadhim Zahawi said there was no place for Islamophobia or whatsoever course of racism in the political party, and that her allegations must be "investigated properly and racism routed out".

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But in a dramatic motion, Chief Whip Mark Spencer said that he was the individual who spoke to Ms Ghani - although he strongly denied using the words claimed.

"To ensure other whips are not fatigued into this thing, I am identifying myself as the person Nusrat Ghani MP has fabricated claims about this night," he said in a statement posted on Twitter.

"These accusations are completely false and I consider them to be defamatory. I accept never used those words attributed to me."

The row erupted at the start of a crucial week for Mr Johnson, with Sue Greyness, the senior civil servant investigating lockdown parties in Downing Street, expected to deliver her report.

Welsh MP calls Tory regime blackmail attempts illegal

Boris Johnson threatened to block funding from backbenchers' constituencies unless they voted 'the right way' every bit he battles to proceed his chore, MPs have reportedly claimed.

Rhondda MP Chris Bryant, chairman of the Commons Standards Committee said such behaviour should exist investigated by the constabulary.

Boris Johnson is battling to relieve his job amid widespread fury over lockdown parties in Downing Street.

Labour MP Mr Bryant said he had spoken to "about a dozen" Conservative MPs in recent days who claimed they had been threatened by Tory whips either with having funding withdrawn from their constituencies or promised funding if they vote "the right way", reported The Mirror.

"I accept even heard MPs alleging that the Prime number Minister himself has been doing this," Mr Bryant said.

"What I have said to all of those people is that this is misconduct in public office. The people who should be dealing with such allegations are the police."

Mr Bryant added: "It is illegal. We are meant to operate as MPs without fear or favour. The allocation of taxpayer funding to constituencies should be according to need, not according to the need to keep the Prime Minister in his job.

"The levelling up funds that accept been introduced in the last ii years are an open opportunity for Regime ministers to corruptly hand out money to some MPs and non to others."

New Zealand's PM postpones her own wedding

New Zealand'due south Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been forced to postpone her own wedding due to the introduction of new Covid restrictions.

Ms Ardern said tighter rules were needed later 9 cases of the Omicron variant were detected in a single family unit that flew to Auckland for a wedding earlier this calendar month.

The prime government minister was planning to get married next weekend but the celebration has been postponed

.

Jacinda Ardern was due to get married side by side weekend

"I only bring together many other New Zealanders who have had an experience similar that as a result of the pandemic and to anyone who's caught up in that scenario, I am so sorry," she said.

The so-called "red setting" of the country'southward pandemic response includes heightened measures such as required mask wearing and limits on gatherings, and the restrictions will go into effect on Monday.

Ms Ardern stressed that "crimson is non lockdown", noting that businesses could remain open and people could nevertheless visit family and friends and move freely around the land.

"Our plan for managing Omicron cases in the early on stage remains the same as Delta, where we will rapidly exam, contact trace and isolate cases and contacts in lodge to slow the spread," the PM told reporters in Wellington on Sunday.

New Zealand had been amid the few remaining countries to have avoided any Omicron outbreaks, simply Ms Ardern acknowledged last week an outbreak was inevitable given the high transmissibility of the variant.

The country has managed to contain the spread of the Delta variant, with an average of almost 20 new cases each 24-hour interval. Merely information technology has seen an increasing number of people arriving into the country and going into mandatory quarantine who are infected with Omicron.

That has put strain on the quarantine system and prompted the regime to limit access for returning citizens while it decides what to do about re-opening its borders, angering many people who want to return to New Zealand.

Nigh 93% of New Zealanders aged 12 and over are fully vaccinated and 52% accept had a booster shot. The land has just begun vaccinating children anile between 5 and 11.

The family from the Nelson-Marlborough region attended a wedding ceremony and other events while in Auckland, with estimates suggesting they came into contact with "well over 100 people at these events", Ms Ardern said.

"That means that Omicron is at present circulating in Auckland and possibly the Nelson-Marlborough region if non elsewhere," she added.

Samoa's lockdown after passengers from Australia exam positive

Samoa has been placed into a 48-60 minutes lockdown after 15 passengers on a flight from Commonwealth of australia tested positive for Covid.

The infected passengers were among 73 who arrived in the pocket-sized Pacific nation from Brisbane on Wednesday.

Prime number Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa too said Saturday the government might cancel further flights from Commonwealth of australia.

A scheduled flying from New Zealand on Saturday has already been postponed, co-ordinate to Radio New Zealand.

All the passengers were reportedly fully vaccinated and had tested negative for Covid earlier deviation.

The governor of neighbouring American Samoa, Lemanu Palepoi Sialega "Peleti" Mauga, issued a argument offering solidarity with Samoa and support for its prime government minister.

He too appear the counterfoil of flights betwixt the territory and Samoa for one week.

Samoa, population 200,000, has reported xviii active cases.

American Samoa besides has xviii cases, all of them travellers from Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines flights from Honolulu.

The latest group of seven who tested positive arrived on January 6.

In that location is no lockdown in American Samoa and flights between Honolulu and Pago Pago proceed on a limited basis.

Hong Kong leader defends hamster cull

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has dedicated a mass cull of hamsters equally she warned that Covid infections could exist growing exponentially in a residential section of the city.

Before this week, some two,000 hamsters from dozens of pet shops and storage facilities were ordered to be 'tending of' later on an outbreak was linked to 1 where 11 pet rodents tested positive.

Presently after, health workers in hazmat suits were seen walking out of pet shops effectually the metropolis conveying cherry plastic bags into their vans. More than 100 customers of the pet shop were as well sent into quarantine.

Volunteers rush to adopt the hamsters being surrendered by their owners to the government

Scientists effectually the world as well equally health and veterinarian authorities in the city have all said in that location is no evidence that animals play a major office in transmitting the virus to humans.

But the rise in cases is testing Hong Kong'due south 'zilch Covid' strategy aimed at eradicating the virus, which has seen schools and gyms shut, restaurants ordered to shut past 6pm and air travel disrupted.

Ms Lam has now urged people to avoid gatherings ahead of next week's Lunar New Year post-obit an outbreak of the highly-infectious Omicron variant in Kwai Chung.

She said: "We are worried that the exponential growth of cases that nosotros have seen in other parts of the earth is now happening in Kwai Chung."

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