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British newspapers, in both their electronic and paper versions, discussed separate topics, among the most prominent: Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer to the Saudi Al-Nasr Football Club, the United States’ warning that ISIS has an army waiting, and the fact that it is feasible to impose travel restrictions on those coming from China.
The beginning is from the Independent electronic newspaper and a report entitled “Cristiano Ronaldo transfers a large financial contract to a Saudi club.”
On Friday, Cristiano Ronaldo completed his lucrative move to Saudi club Al-Nasr in a deal that marks a historic moment for football in the Middle East, but one that will see one of Europe’s biggest stars vanish from the sporting podium.
The Saudi club hailed the move in a social media post with a picture of five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano holding the club’s shirt after signing the deal, describing it as “history in the making”.
The report believes that the deal gives Ronaldo, 37, a huge profit in what could be the last contract in his football career. He quoted media reports claiming that the Portuguese star could get up to $200 million annually from the deal, making him the highest-paid footballer in history.
In a statement, Ronaldo said he was “keen to try out a new football league in a different country”. Adding that after winning European football, he now feels that this is the right moment to share his experience in Asia.
After a famous career that saw him win the Champions League with both United and Real Madrid, as well as league and cup titles in England, Spain and Italy, the newspaper suggests that the Portuguese striker now may want to see the last years of his career away from the spotlight in European football.
The report notes that while the signing is a huge boost for football in the Middle East, it will also fuel controversy over Saudi Arabia’s use of so-called “sports-washing” to boost the country’s international image.
constant threat
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Al-Hol camp, Syria, June 2020
And to The Times newspaper and an article written by the Middle East correspondent, Richard Spencer, entitled “The United States warns that the organization of what is known as the Islamic State has an army in waiting.”
The newspaper mentions what came in a report by the US Central Command that there are about 20,000 fighters and leaders of the organization being held in Iraq and 10,000 others in Syria. Moreover, the 25,000 children in camps like al-Hol in northeastern Syria represent “the potential next generation for ISIS.”
The report called on the international community to work together to remove these children from this environment by returning them to their countries or communities of origin, while improving living conditions in the camp.
The report stated that despite the active role of US, British and other Western forces in northeastern Syria and Iraq, hundreds of anti-ISIS operations were carried out in the two countries. However, there are two main reasons for the continuing threat posed by the group.
The first: his attacks on prisons, where his fighters are held, and the second: the chaotic rule of a large part of the country, in which four ruling powers are in conflict: President Assad’s regime, the Western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib, and former Turkish-backed fighters in the north.
The feasibility of imposing Corona restrictions
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And we conclude our tour in The Telegraph newspaper and an article prepared by the Deputy Editor of Global Health Security, Samuel Lovett, entitled “Why imposing travel restrictions on China is a waste of time.”
The writer believes that as the picture of Covid in China worsened, which was exacerbated by the lack of reliable data, many governments were quick and decisive in taking preventive measures to protect their people.
Japan, India, Italy, the United States, and recently Britain imposed corona checks on passengers coming from China.
While concerns about the high wave of infections in China and the impact it could have on the epidemic are understandable, it is unlikely, from the point of view of the article, that the imposition of travel restrictions on the country will prove effective, which was confirmed by Professor Daniel Valoch, of the Pasteur Institute. Shanghai, “Experience shows that travel restrictions have little effect in the absence of other measures,” he said.
“If variants with a fitness advantage come up, they will always find a way around and the best that can be achieved is a short delay when they arrive.”
Previous attempts to prevent the Delta and Omicron variants from spreading outside India and South Africa, respectively, have also failed miserably. In both cases, simply applying travel restrictions delayed the inevitable, and over time, the two dynasties became world-dominant.
“Travel restrictions are pointless, in the context of limited or no infection control in the countries that impose them,” said Aris Katzourakis, professor of evolution and genomics at the University of Oxford.
And the writer quotes Dr. Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, as saying that travel restrictions, which are “arguably effective in the first place,” can usually be applied for two different purposes.
The first, an attempt to keep local infection cases low” is currently irrelevant for Britain, where it was estimated that more than 1.3 million people in the country tested positive for Covid last week.
The second is to try to keep new mutants and variants of the virus out of the country. On this basis, the decision to impose travel restrictions on China would be logical, with the exception of “there is currently no evidence” indicating the emergence of a new and dangerous strain of the virus in China and the Chinese. Adds Dr. Peacock.
The writer explains that it is natural that the lack of data that China shares with the international scientific community, including the number of cases, disease severity and genetic mutations, makes it difficult to draw final conclusions, but all signs indicate that there is nothing of great concern currently circulating about it. China.
But Dr. Megan Cale, an epidemiologist at the UK’s Health Security Agency, believes that one of the proposed solutions is the continuous monitoring of recent travelers from China after their arrival, in an attempt to identify any new variants that they may carry. “Although this is expensive, it would be more cost-effective than screening all travellers,” she said.