Zero-Covid China fights to contain Omicron as restrictions tighten in major city
CNN
China's northern port city of Tianjin and central province of Henan have further tightened Covid restrictions as the highly contagious Omicron variant continues to spread, posing the gravest challenge yet to the country's zero-Covid strategy.
Tianjin, which detected China's first community spread of Omicron on Saturday, is rolling out a second round of mass testing on its 14 million residents on Wednesday. As of noon Tuesday, 97 people had tested positive.
The outbreak is particularly worrying to officials in Beijing, which lies about 80 miles northwest of Tianjin -- and about 30 minutes away by high-speed rail. The Chinese capital is due to host the Winter Olympics on February 4.
President Joe Biden asserted Friday that Hamas has been degraded to a point where it can no longer carry out the type of attack that launched the current 8-month conflict in Gaza, laying out a three-phase proposal Israel has submitted to wind down the grinding crisis as he declared, “It’s time for this war to end.