BREAKING Bob Cole, veteran CBC broadcaster and former voice of 'Hockey Night in Canada,' dead at 90
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
The Kremlin on Friday blamed a surge in COVID-19 cases on reluctance to have vaccinations and "nihilism" after a record 9,056 new infections in Moscow, mostly with the new Delta variant, fanned fears of a third wave.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin extended restrictions he had imposed this month, which include a ban on events with more than 1,000 people, an 11 p.m. closing time for restaurants, and the closure of fan zones set up for the European soccer championship.
He had said earlier this week that the situation in the capital, home to 13 million people, was deteriorating rapidly.
"According to the latest data, 89.3 per cent of Muscovites (recently) diagnosed with COVID-19 have the mutated, so-called Delta or Indian variant," the news agency TASS quoted Sobyanin as saying on state television.
Moscow accounted for more than half the 17,262 reported across Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was monitoring the situation closely.
Asked to explain the surge, Peskov blamed the virus's "cunning nature" - a reference to its mutations - as well as "total nihilism, and the low vaccination level."
At a briefing, he rejected suggestions that Russians were reluctant to have vaccinations because they distrusted the authorities.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, a member of the coronavirus task force, said in televised comments that 16.1 million Russians have been inoculated with both components of COVID-19 vaccines as of June 18.
She said that 19.7 million have got at least the first dose of the vaccines: at one-seventh of the population, that is far less than in most Western countries.
Golikova urged Russians to get re-vaccinated after 6 months from the previous vaccination.
She also said that the Russian government has decided "it was expedient" to resume flights to Turkey from June 22 amid the improved COVID-19 situation and oversight there, after restrictions had been introduced in May.
Flights to some other countries, including the United States and Belgium would also be resumed later this month, she added.
Central Election Commission head Ella Pamfilova said voting in this autumn's parliamentary election would be extended, largely because of the pandemic, to run over three days, from Sept. 17-19, rather than one, the Interfax news agency reported.
Moscow authorities this week said anyone working in a public-facing role must have a vaccination, and on Friday they said anyone who had not been vaccinated would be refused non-emergency hospital treatment.
Sobyanin said it was now even vital to start administering further boosters - in effect, a third dose. He said he himself had just received a top-up, after being fully vaccinated a year ago.
The third doses being offered are a repeat of the first dose of the two-shot Sputnik V vaccine, he said.
Several Russian officials and members of the business elite, as well as some members of the public, have already been securing third and fourth doses of Sputnik V, Reuters reported in April.
The question of how long a vaccine offers protection against COVID-19 will be vital as countries gauge when or whether revaccination will be needed, and Russia's findings will be closely watched.
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.