Sin categoría
Spurs in crisis after 13 players and staff test positive for coronavirus
AFP
Tottenham manager Antonio Conte said on Wednesday that eight players and five members of staff had tested positive for coronavirus and he expected more confirmed cases.
Spurs are due to play a crucial Europa Conference League game against Rennes on Thursday and UEFA has said the match is due to take place as scheduled.
It remains unclear whether the club will ask for their Premier League match at Brighton on Sunday to be postponed.
“Eight players and five members of staff,” Conte said at a press conference, which was held virtually rather than in person at the club’s Hotspur Way training centre.
“Every day we are having people with Covid, people who were not positive yesterday. This is not a good situation.”
Conte was supposed to be joined by Danish midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg at the pre-match press conference, but instead faced the media on his own.
“To speak about football today is impossible,” said the Italian, who became Spurs boss last month. “The last situation made me very upset.
“The situation is serious. There is a big infection. We prepare for the game against Rennes, but it is very difficult.
“Again at the end of the session, one player (tested) positive, another staff (member) positive — tomorrow, who (will it be)?
“Now, for sure, we are a bit scared because tomorrow we don’t know what happens.”
The coronavirus pandemic largely forced football behind closed doors last season but full crowds have returned to English football during the current campaign even though Covid-19 infection levels remain high.
The Premier League on Monday reported 12 new positive coronavirus tests out of 3,154 tests among players and club staff. It was the highest figure since late August.
The new Omicron variant has caused global concern over signs that it can transmit faster than previous strains and fears that its multiple mutations could help it evade immune defences provided by vaccines. No deaths have yet been associated with the variant.
– ‘Strange and incredible’ –
An emotional Conte admitted the situation was “so strange and incredible”.
The Italian added: “This for sure makes me upset because I am here to talk about football, about my players and the atmosphere that I want to see tomorrow. Instead we are talking about the people that have Covid.”
Conte was not able to confirm whether it was the Omicron variant at the centre of the outbreak, but confirmed he had been vaccinated.
Referring to vaccination take-up within his squad, the Spurs boss said: “I think everyone takes (their own) best decision and is a question for the medical department about people that whether they are vaccinated or not.”
Rennes are already through to the last 16 of the Conference League as group winners while Tottenham currently lead Vitesse on overall goal difference in the battle for second place.
International
Trump warns Hamas that they will be “eradicated” if they break the ceasefire with Israel in Gaza
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, urged Hamas again this Monday to stop the violence and take the terms of the peace plan it promotes with Israel in Gaza, warning that otherwise they could be “eradicated,” although in turn he ruled out the possible presence of soldiers from his country in the Strip.
“We have peace in the Middle East for the first time in history; we reached an agreement with Hamas for which they will be very good, they will behave well and they will be kind. And if not, we will go and we will eradicate them,” the president told the press during a meeting at the White House with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Trump clarified, however, that if that happened “there would be no American soldiers on the ground at all” because it would only be enough to ask several of the countries that supported the peace proposal to take charge of the Palestinian militant group: “Israel would intervene in two minutes,” he added.
“I could tell them to intervene (to the countries) and take care of it. But for now, we haven’t said it. We are going to give (Hamas) a small chance and, hopefully, there will be a little less violence,” said the president, whose plan received the support of Arab and European nations during a peace summit in Egypt.
The American insisted that the militant group “has been very violent, but no longer has the support of Iran. He no longer has the support of anyone. They have to behave well, and if they don’t, they will be eradicated,” he repeated.
Israel bombed several points in Gaza on Sunday and killed dozens of people, in response to what it interpreted as a “violation” of the agreement by Hamas, a week after the entry into force of the ceasefire promoted by the Trump Administration.
The bombings took place after clashes in the Rafah area, located in southern Gaza and controlled by the Israeli Army, which left two Israeli soldiers dead.
After these clashes, Israel claimed to have “resumed the application of the ceasefire”. Shortly after, Trump assured for his part that the truce “is still in force.”
The Republican president had already threatened last week to “kill” Hamas members if they did not comply with the ceasefire agreement with Israel and “continue to kill in Gaza.”
The militant group has mobilized in Gaza to regain control after the start of the ceasefire in the Strip, which has meant the withdrawal of Israeli troops from half of the territory. In the midst of this tense situation, there have also been clashes between Hamas and other local militias.
Several videos show summary executions of people whom Palestinian militants accuse of collaborating with Israel, which according to local sources, have occurred in Gaza City.
Sin categoría
Trump files $15 billion defamation suit against The New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump has filed a $15 billion defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times, which denounced the legal move on Tuesday as an attempt to silence the press.
In this new stage of his presidency, the 79-year-old Republican leader has escalated his long-standing hostility toward traditional media, repeatedly attacking critical journalists, limiting their access, or taking them to court.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Florida, seeks $15 billion in damages, along with additional punitive compensation “in an amount to be determined at trial.”
The New York Times had reported last week that Trump threatened legal action over articles concerning a birthday letter allegedly sent by him to financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The letter featured a typed message inside the outline of a nude woman. Trump denies that the accompanying signature is his.
“For too long, The New York Times has been allowed to lie, defame, and slander me freely — and that ends NOW!” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Sin categoría
Maduro warns Venezuela would enter armed struggle if attacked by foreign forces
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stated on Friday that if his country were attacked, it would enter a phase of armed struggle, amid his claims of “threats” from the United States, which is conducting a military deployment in Caribbean waters near Venezuela’s coast under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
Maduro emphasized that Venezuela is currently in the non-armed phase, which he described as political, communicational, and institutional, but added that if the country were somehow aggressed, it would move to a planned, organized armed struggle involving the entire population, whether the threat is local, regional, or national.
“We would enter a stage of armed struggle, in defense of peace, territorial integrity, sovereignty, and our people,” Maduro said during an event activating citizen militias, broadcast on state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
He also noted that Venezuela is currently in a phase of readiness and preparation to defend the country and will proceed to the deployment of defensive capacities, including training and retraining of the entire Venezuelan population.
Maduro described the Venezuelan people as pacifist yet warrior-like, asserting that “no one will enslave us, neither today nor ever.”
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